A DRUM-TYMPANUM

(a sonnet uttered by the Flying Head)

—Paint a BABE naked BLUE

with lips the day looks BA

BU in dithyraMBs BU taBOO

put your teeth in BUBABU

poetry grows from hunchBAck work

with money BAttle in the hump

and BUBABU will BE reBEllion

your head’s feeble from alphaBETs

the BArd BUrsts with his labia lips

what the world hisses with the theater screams

you’ll play a poem that’s worth it all

you’ll end up in Paradise (or Paris)

BU to death to eternity BU

and BU and BA and BUBABU

Translated by Michael M. Naydan