Eristicdoculidiculous
had abbreviated meetings all the time
and he shorten his name to Eris
in search of gold
from the fountains

an' when chosen for
a' service
for the state

a' measure his height
make a standard measure
get an angle on the dangle
of a ship gone a moore
moored off shore
from his shadow
and the sixty tall tallis men
on the same list
of mandatory servatudes
found he 'ad been called
a one half a life time duty
instead by mistake Ontolologicalius
who had legally changed his name to Onto
and gone onto someother land
leave him here with an abbreviate life long list of experiences
and a single lifelong plan
stand still in the sun
so a man can estimate
from his shadows
the length of his frame
and guess the distance of a falling ship
permanently mooored in the rain.

An he cryied a second
though enlightened
that the work was light
and not put a stess on his
shortened and new unstretched name

If the shoe fits
wear it
But shoes change his height
and his shadow and the state
look a' moore him
like the ship at the door to the vast ocean floor

He might 'ad straightened it all out too
as the state had no
qualms with a man standing stiff
as it would have with a man slumped
cast a bad number
on the distances
to their setting masts
and yard arm troubled mane

But a call is a call
As
for his servitudes
'ad no room for his
old hungary tongue
as it did for his bodily mass
and breathing room

and of what he could say
he could say nothing at all

And what they gave for his pay
was his own new design for his breath
on his regular
day of the week
month or year
on his regular pay day

"Say"
but he had had nothing actually ever to say
anyway


It is in the size of his shadows
cast a man his name
less his eros be more a'sunken
grasp in his hand
an' his own sun painted
shadow
leave 'im none a say in the distant
waves he no measure or gage
a way a' measure
ere he also had painted them there all the same
a' stand for the others and their brothers
a sure fallen shore
along all tethered on a long tether together
a fallen ship
'ad fallen a'moore
a golden sun light
and a treasured fountain of ocean water

Leave only
his lonely
real undefined essense
Tethered along together
air, fire and water
as a standing anchor
straight and barefoot
for the rain moore and shore


Marvin E. Kirsh