Freshly Shaved and Barbered Well

by Michael Cantor

I arrive the town in my green tin truck
with wire wheels, and mermaid-colored sides,
and wave about a sapling dowsing stick
until the townsel lads and dumplings gather.
There then I flicker-flack my bumpled snout,
and thrust bouquets of seaweed at the crowd.
Fish, belly-up in the shallow inlets,
will swim and see again, I promise them,
For the dowser-man is here, and he knows
streams and rains, and all the secret ways
beneath the church and school
; and with my smoke
and mirrors, images and rhythm spells,
and forked young rod and cymbals, fife and drum,
I have such tricks as make the public hum.


 

 

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