Tone Deficit by Kevin McFadden : Poetry Magazine

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Tone Deficit
BY KEVIN MCFADDEN

Can't tell your oh from your ah? Go, go or else

go ga-ga. What, were you born in a barn? Oh.
Ah. What do you say when the dentist asks?
No novacaine? Nah. Then joke's on us, Jack:
we gnaw ourselves when we really ought to know.
Can't tell the force from the farce, nor our
cores from our cars. The horde works hard in this
new nation of shopkeeps, moles in malls, minding
our stores when we should be minding our stars.
Harmony, whoremoneycan we even tell
the showman from the shaman? Or are we
the worst kind of tourists, doing La France
in low fronts, sporting shorts at Chartres
and so alone in our lan? Nope. We're Napoleons
of nowhere, hopeless going on hapless,
unable to tell our Elbas from our elbows.

Source: Poetry (September 2006).

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10/28/13 9:55 PM