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Poem
by Daniel Borzutzky


The Hippo-Lexicographer Affair
 
I did not trade our soybeans for hair pieces, nor did I trade our
confessional poets for Persian ornitholgists. 
I have issued a directive prohibiting the undertaking
of covert ornithology.  However, I have gasped at a
blue marsh.  It was a mistake.  And what should happen when you make a
mistake is this:  you diversify your portfolio.  You take your
knocks, you learn to ignore the ideologues who preach that mutual
funds are breeding grounds for Satanists.  You know, by the time you reach
my age, you make plenty of mistakes.  And if you've lived your life properly,
you diversify your portfolio.  There are reasons why it happened. 
And as personally distasteful as I find secret codes----the pap,
as they say, had already been poured into our ears. 
I want a pet who is justifiable and understandable
in public.  It was a mistake.  And there are reasons why it happened. 
For I let my personal concern for the hippopotamuses
spill over into the geopolitical strategy of
reaching out to the Pan-Asian lexicographers.  I asked so
many questions about the hypothetical human that I did
not ask enough about the specifics of the total human. 
Let me say to the families:  I apologize for ignoring
the signals about the thing in question.  For I
was so preoccupied with the thing in
question that I forgot about the thing in question.  Rest assured,
I have not forgotten about the thing in question.