Excuse me, excuse me,
may I have your attention please.
I have an announcement to make,
a declaration really.
Oh my! I do declare!
No mere extra! extra!
blaring from the street corner,
taped to a utility pole,
stapled to a fence slat,
but a full-bodied shout-it-from-the-mountaintop
Wittenberg-door-splitting theses nailing
steeple peeling moon howling
judge pleading fever breaking
shout for your attention.
Could Gabriel have been more insistent?
Him with his rusty trumpet?
Or was it a trusting strumpet,
that chugging tin lizzy?
Now listen to me.
Notice me.
Make me matter.
I’m afraid, you know.
Don’t walk away.
Don’t make me make a scene.
I’ll stamp my feet.
Don’t think I won’t, because
I have an announcement.
For whiter whites,
a brand new you,
minty fresh,
satisfaction guaranteed.
And that mountaintop?
I blew it off for coal.
And that nail in the door?
I’d used it once before,
and recycled it for something new:
Wanted
dead or alive.