Kangaroo Philes

when I was a boy, 7 maybe 8, I was

lost at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

a local celebrity looked at me, after

he asked this simple question.

he asked what does kangaroo mean in

the native tongue, he held the microphone to me,

alone since I’d wandered off and lost my

mother’s hand like

I usually did out in public.

looking at that million dollar smile

and game show host gleam in the

dapper dude’s eye, I shrugged and

said, “I dunno?” and he stood up and raised

one arm, like sending a flock

of birds in flight and told me I was right.

I won a T-shirt for whatever radio or television station

he was working for. that’s the first thing I ever

won.

so, when I begin at the beginning, like

my first muse Alice, I find not a rabbit,

but a jumping dancing boxing kangaroo

with shiny mirrored eyes,

my face reflecting back at me in

funhouse distortion.

7.10.03