Once

Saint Paul, 1 May 2006

Next to a genderless shitter

in the basement of an eatery

made famous from the patronage

of the wholly anonymous

is an alluring garret

Warmed by a gooseneck lamp

its black ivory keys on stilts

is a typewriter

The sheet in its carriage reads

It was a dark and stormy night...

Patrons with filthy mitts and empty bowels

lurch their untold stories along

But I’m not having it

I vow to return

with virgin paper