Just Like Georgie

In Serf City, USA
I live under the shadow
of Palatine Hill.
Oftentimes
I wake up
very Mister Badger
in the wassail ruins
of Toad Hall.
Churchill’s Black Dog
follows me through the frigid streets
begging to be fed.
Old money frowns at my tattered pants
jitterbugging for nickels
in the New World.
Torquemada with a bottle of white-out
erases my footnote
In the Big Book.
It’s O.K.
I didn’t want to be in it anyway.
I’m already in my favorite book
Georgie by Robert Bright.
My mom wrote my name
on the inside cover.
The illustration
on the last page
of the little ghost
running up the steps to his home
always makes me smile,
always makes me feel
understood.
Now that’s a fine How Do You Do!