You crossed a black cat’s path / when you encountered me
Somebody should have said / this here was a carnival
The only way out again’s / back through the livingroom
Which you were just driven from / on account of your destiny

You, with your vacant heart / throwing your weight around
Just like you owned the joint / or like you knew someone
Making your crass remarks / into their fold-out smiles
As all of their watches chimed / and somewhere a sailor drowned

Tears like a jet-streamed sky / raking your made-up face
I caught a glimpse of you / inside the hallway meer
You looked like a vagabond / you looked like a stolen wife
Or what is the word for it? / you looked simply out of place

And as the hostess rose / shouting her lover’s name
Crying for ornaments / and for a tablecloth
I saw how you fell apart / then gathered up yourself
You puttem all to shame, you puttem all to shame

II
Just as the matador / flung off his captain’s cape
in preparation for / some kind of ritual
the astronaut cleared his throat / as if he would make a toast
then he restrained himself / with a whole roll of plumber’s tape

“I don’t care what the bible says,” / shouted the bathroom stall
addressing the minister / distributing sacraments
Out of a purse he stole / out of the parsonage
Pardoning pilferage / at no extra charge at all

Back at the ranch meanwhile / nobody’d moved a bone
The sheriff was flinging cards / into a hangman’s noose
The deputy watched a fly / buzzin around the room
Drew back the velvet drapes / looked out at a parking cone

A fat lady stood and belched / saluted the flag and sang:
Somewhere a child is born / somewhere a child dies
Nobody looks at you / they don’t think you’re beautiful
But you puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame

You puttem all to shame, just like a needle plunging into a vein
That carries the antidote that’s full of the cure from the heart to the brain
You puttem all to shame—
III
Lord Alfred makes his rounds / handing out red balloons
Asking for tickets, please / saying Please Watch Your Step
Producing a handkerchief / dripping with turpentine
Peddling silverware / and stopping to smell the fumes

The emperor’s crown’s been caught / over the mantelpiece
A bystander claimed it was / made out of mistletoe
Lonely men gathered round / waiting for girls to come
The pianist blew trombone / his requiem masterpiece

The sofa is filling up / like it was a safety boat
With politician’s wives / and the offspring of janitors
There was a pack of dogs / I think they were Sherlock Holmes’
Charging the drawbridge doors / molesting an overcoat

And you in your pleated skirt / looking so torn apart
How did your hair get wet? / it’s not even raining out
I could have kissed you then / you would have hated me
You puttem all to shame, you puttem all to shame

IV

Up at the podium / the weatherman prophesies
all bets are off this year / blaming technology
The postman has been delayed / due to the hurricane
Just then some legs walked in / in search of a centipede

the judge entered, wig-and-all / some people stood and cheered
others threw fruit at him / others forget-me-nots
his gavel was in his hand / his sword hanging by his side
his breath smelled of bubblegum / bacon grease in his beard

and people have asked before / what is it I see in you
I always respond to them / well isn’t it obvious?
You held a parasol / under a chandelier
You lit your cigarette / in the coals of a barbecue

It was your corkscrew gaze / meeting my tailspin frame
that was the moment when / I knew you were the one
they were the best of theirs / you were no match for them
you put em all to shame / you puttem all to shame

you puttem all to shame, just like a lost child that nobody claims
whose manifest radiance is offered to everyone and then goes down the drain

V

serpentine pedagogues / brandishing chilled vermouth
using their intellects / as if they were hand-grenades
Sodom is burning down / there’s firetrucks everywhere
And Socrates’ dies tonight / for trying to corrupt the youth

head like a pile of rocks / face like a punching-bag
nobody thinks I’m cute / narcissus vainly wines
he asks the river who / is fairest of them all?
the one with the stupid hat / that looks like a launching-pad

Mathematicians trade / stories with psychopaths
About what is possible / in the grand scheme of things
The psychopath wants to know / whether it’s feasible
The metaphysicians claim / it really just basic math

Eventually you’re convinced / Chess is a bachelor’s game
The neighbors are victims of / suburban piracy
Going from door to door / Showing their business-cards
You puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame

VI

you move through the marketplace / like you was a stranger there
taking a hold of things / asking how much is this?
If a wheelbarrow full of cash / is the price of a loaf of bread
What will you pay to me / to relinquish my rockingchair?

Or cut to the figurines / dancing in silhouette
one dressed in corduroys / one in a diamond suit
the princess of India / in the arms of a scalawag
whose playing the fool tonight / trying to pirouette

Down in the lower depths / beneath the catacombs
Echoes of subway trains / hurtling overhead
The hands of a claustrophobe / touching the hands of God
Wound up in heavy chains / reaching for help and home

Robin Hood checks his gauge / flawlessly changes lanes
Everyone beeps at him / tells him where he can go
From his perspective though / these are just bumper cars
You puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame

VII

I watched you donning masks / out in the alleyways
Practicing tones of voice / under a crescent moon
You were the mermaid queen / tossing a skipping stone
Into a sea of sand / a valley of microwaves

Someone was guiding me / they must’ve got lost, I guess
Out in the wilderness / look at that burning bush
I heard what sounded like / a wandering pack of wolves
pathetically fingernailed / clawing a dead-man’s chest

Next time I pass this way / better have your eyes peeled
Stuck in their sockets like / they was a pair of bulbs
I’ll be in desperate straits / I’ll be insane with grief
Dragging a tire-swing / out of a potter’s field

somebody threw himself / off the midnight Express
they said it was suicide / it was indisputable
nobody knew him though / he claimed to be everyone
you puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame

VIII

the referee’s missing tooth / turned up in a boxingglove
that was inside the wedding-cake / they sent to the funeral
the one that read: Warmst Regards / From All of Us Back Home
depicting a concubine / dispensing a mother’s love

and as the warden waits / examining old brochures
that advertised Michigan / that spoke of an afterlife
the inmates are at their bars / releasing their mourning doves
that’re seen from the passing bus / offering city-tours

Mother Teresa writes / in an old-fashioned style
An overdue letter to / a boyfriend across the sea
Enclosing a photograph / in which she is posing nude
Saying, Next time you come / why don’t you stay awhile?

And here’s Satan’s latest prize / the one with the swollen brain
Riding the chariot / into the stadium’s mouth
What are you waiting for? / who are you hiding from?
you puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame

IX

the inferno calmly climbs / up on a bail of hay
Inviting martyrdom / down from its pedestal
the difference tween them and you’s / same as the difference tween
a woman that’s made of flesh / and one that’s just made of clay

You came down the spiral stair / the way I’ve seen waterfall
Or like a shooting star / or like sinking hope
you had your hat on square / all perpendicular
you spoke in pentameter / like some kind of know it all

suddenly here we are / inside the final ring
Here at the empty room / here at the final hour
Traitors are telling lies / trying to avoid the blame
Elderly couples sit / fondly remembering

I wrote, “Dear Beatrice,” / like I had forgot your name
Composing my epitaph / using a ball-point pen
and for the hundredth time / inside a half-an-hour
you puttem all to shame / you puttem all to shame