All the distracted
ladies on Bluetooth
while jogging unruly
dogs down these
streets, each
blithe kid biking
past you while hurling some
buoyant profanity,
every last hollow-
cheeked old man
yowling something
about Sports on each cozy
neighborhood bar's
crazy multiplicity
of flatscreens—for years they all
seem to mean
practically
nothing to you. Until the
great day when,
upon find yourself
tired of trying
to deliver
such respectful and
meticulous translations,
you first hit upon
the beautiful gimmick—
of heedlessly cramming
every word they say, wholesale
into your own
preexisting melody.