Hotel towel pilferer, coffee spoon
Lifter, fervent retailer of others'
Humor, blackhearted gossiper,
Poisoner at the well, dweller
In unsavory detail, delighted sayer
Of the vulgar, off course belier
Of the true me, empiric builder
Newly haircutted, stickerer-up
For pals, jam unpriser, medic
To the self-inflicted, attorney
To the self-indicted, petty accountant
And keeper of the double books,
Great divider of the universe
And all its forms of existence
Into its relationship to me,
Fellow trembler to the future,
Thin air gawker, apprehender
Of the frameless door.
(C.P. Cavafy's poem "The Satrapy," translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, can be found in his "Collected Poems." Princeton Univ. Translation copyright © 1975 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Stuart Dischell's poem "Days of Me" appears in his book "Dig Safe." Penguin. Copyright © 2003 by Stuart Dischell.)
