Tony Dash
Nobody
A man who was nobody
could see 93 miles.
He had respect for the stars
and reverence for the sun.
He thought up names
for famous plane trees.
He spoke of an elephant
in Egypt, that fell in love
with a girl who sold flowers
and Alpine mice that
were as big as badgers
and Adonis fish that
have a voice but no gills
and certain oysters
with the nature of a bush.
He had a sense of shame
and mated in the dark.
He suffered from a certain
but useless precision
and spent years in dismay.
He invented bitch milk
and the grease of bears,
as a cure for baldness.
He adorned his favourite
lamprey with earrings.
Most of what he said
he believed to be true.
The chief characteristic
of his mind was to be
constantly describing itself.
The breath of the world
caressed him kindly.
Unoccupied, he sometimes
wondered who he was.
Page(s) 54-55
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