Sunday Poem

SHAKE'N BAKE BALLAD

In 100% surefire arsenic
in snowwhite lye
in lepers’ bathwater
in strychnine buttered with lead
in scrapemash off soldiers’ bootsoles
in 7 cities’ drainmalt
in snot pastry
in wolverine toad and turkey gall
and in viler things
shake’n bake their envy-schooled tongues.

In pencilpaint and braspy mulepiss
in rabid dogdrool
in long peels of oven grease
in wormpie and roachpaste
in cigarettesog of tavern urinals
in rats’ sewer water
in coffinslag and maggotmatting
in plasters of runover skunk
and in viler things
shake’n'bake their envy-schooled tongues.

In battery acid and engine goo
in egglacquered ragrot
in soapfoam and mosquito spray
in flubbery diaperslop
in stiff dishwater
in surgical mustard (morgue scraps)
in cat toad snail and tire wipe
in dead fish and ulcer ooze
and in viler things
shake’n bake their envy-schooled tongues.

Prince
push all these into a crush
and if you haven’t got a strainer handy
use the back of your pants.
And make sure there’s enough batter––
roll on pig manure––before you
shake’n bake their envy-schooled tongues.

From Mountain Tea (2003) by Peter Van Toorn

(Painting by Roland Hicks)