Freshly Shaved and Barbered Well
by Michael Cantor
I arrive the town in my green tin truck
with wire wheels, and mermaid-colored sides,
and wave about a sapling dowsing stick
until the townsel lads and dumplings gather.
There then I flicker-flack my bumpled snout,
and thrust bouquets of seaweed at the crowd.
Fish, belly-up in the shallow inlets,
will swim and see again, I promise them,
For the dowser-man is here, and he knows
streams and rains, and all the secret ways
beneath the church and school; and with my smoke
and mirrors, images and rhythm spells,
and forked young rod and cymbals, fife and drum,
I have such tricks as make the public hum.
