king's quest 4

Magic Helicopter Prayer

Which deodorant allows you
to check the electric meters
in that very sexy fashion
dawn and doughnut crumbs
provoke?

Which Mach do you use
in the bathroom of Denny's?
Brown towel chips in your chin,
the syrup bowl a shitty mirror.

Which hatchback goes best
off the pier? Your violin inside,
your orange rinds and old shoes.

Which cover song accompanies the man
who answers a classified for an ice vendor?

Which company hires the Marine come back
to his Kentucky sawgrass and attic full
of Lincoln logs? His grandmother
hands him a butter knife.

Which insurance agent will stand
next to you, your solvency, collecting
scoops of snow in styrofoam thimbles,
while you sleep in the car you crashed
into a cow -- who, like most of what
befalls us, wouldn't turn to answer.

Where are the commercials set
in the elevators of the all alone?
In the jigs done therein, in the
buttons smooshed to code
a magic helicopter prayer.

Where are the endorsements of crawdad soup
and elbow scabs? Where are the battery ads
that feature gouged chests, nimble sinew,
that sell you the bunny’s mallet and
offer to amp up your smallest bones?

Which central casting agency hires you
to ape the nap that ends with wait--
I’m-not-an-astronaut?

Where are the public service announcements
explaining how to tickle a whale’s uvula?
This, the bow tied man would explain,
is how to guarantee his sneeze.
This is the notion of freedom.