I.
The hand
that's free to dream
turns to Alan Alda's laughable mug
and traces in carbon
the giggles
that arise like giggles
in response to this setup. It's the hand's hope
to harvest laughter, and sell the whole bushel
to Andrew
Wylie, ferocious "can-do" literary agent
nicknamed "The Jackal" by the British press.
II.
"What
does Alan Alda think about you doing this?" someone asked. I
called Alan for permission and he quoted world-famous poet Diane Ward;
"Awhenever one whoever touches makes up dialogue in me."
I suggested we change that to the perhaps more marketable phrase "whoever
touches me makes a dialogue of me," but Alan, busy following his father's
role in The House of Exorcism starring Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas,
and a large cast of Italian actors, had already hung up the phone.
III.
The hand
that refuses to dream
After a phone's categorical click, wavers
In the suddenly-bookish atmosphere.
A young
woman appears wearing a pineapple-flavored
jumpsuit
And licks the hand's palm. "Oh, puh-leez!" the hand thinks,
as it goes back
to dream
of Alan Alda with the dark brown hair
and the glories that lie therein.
