Subjoinders to Our Hero

& so it was—gliding, variously—

for the rest of his untold life
& the harangue of gut, harangue

of weather in his hair & he sits
at the hand-me-down-table

with a basket of green oranges & perhaps
you have met his decoys,

the little note takers, little forgettable
ones & actually he gathers

into a propped corner & gathers waves,
alibis, the used, a personality

of suberose kept wet and stoppering
a bottle & to further elucidate

this gallimaufry: galer, to amuse
oneself and mafrer, to gorge oneself

& that is the only counterbalance
of comfort offered & additional slung

glut of will & undying is his deference
for the head-down, keep-walking-one

& its rapacious, rapacious tread.

Copyright © 2005 Ryan Flaherty All rights reserved
from Columbia: A Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission