Poetry
DISPLACEMENT 1
(The ventriloquist on 54th Street)
In Salamanca he used lime
thorns to spear ants
ouch he’d say making his voice
come from deep inside.
Ha and ha again lips sealed.
More words form in a closed mouth.
Out of Salamanca
in a grid work of tenements
among steeplejacks and girders
his mouth crammed
with wise cracks asides
gagging from the overfill
characters surface
accented from a Spanish tongue
shout out and sing old songs from home.
Published in Orbis (No. 148) 2009
