a furred tail upon nothingness – Ezra Pound

“Humanity in this present age!” Sphinx squawks.

“But what’s the question, my friend? Quick, fire!” She barks.

Now shocking pink, now glimmering black and white.

“What goes on no legs and four wheels?” a little

hesitatingly the Little Man replies.

Sphinx takes a dim view of this mastermind

through horn-rimmed glasses lowered slowly down her nose.

“How d’you get there?” she quizzes. A bit bemused.

“Give me a banjo,” Little Man replies,

“and I’ll sing you the tale!” Not one to miss out

on a little light entertainment, the Sphinx

(now in the pink) indulges the little Man,

filing her cherry-red panther’s nails in mock

distraction, as he begins an old-school blues.

A bit of country thrown in to please the crowd.

Nothing too high-brow for this variety show.

*

“No legs when born,” he starts. “Agreed.” Sphinx picks

up the refrain. “At least,” she adds, ‘if we consider life

to start at conception.” “As,” he is quick to retort,

“of course we do.” “Then four, like dog, or rat or cat,

or you.” He stops. “Unspeaking infant.” “Agreed!”

Panther replies. only a little aggrieved

by the implicit slur. And adds, “I speak.

Speak like Achilles’ horse inside your empty head.”

She taps it with her claws. “Then two.” “But maybe

not for long.” The panther adds. “That’s true. That’s why two

turns so soon to three. What with the claudication.”

He muffles the word. Not wishing to seem

too educated. That’s wise. And mindful

of the slight limp Sphinx might have noticed.

“I see we’re getting there now.” Sphinx smiles. The wheel

of fortune turns. “And then the car.” “And then the accident.”

“And then the surgeon’s knife.” “And then no legs again.”

“And yet four wheels.” “Like chariots in the vision

of Ezekiel.” “I see.” The panther grins.

The penny drops and opportunity knocks.

*

“You are a clever little bastard, aren’t you?

 I’ll eat you anyway. No point in that old story

repeating itself. Like indigestible food.

No point chewing the cud. I’ll just

wolf you straight down.”

*

“Nothing,” the little man retorts. Desperate

to turn the tables and save the day.

“What is a man?” Sphinx in an instant replies.

*

Sphinx fucks the man turned millipede she’s tumbled

drunkenly for and into bed with this fine day.

“That way we skip some stages in the story”,

her pillow-talk goes. “Yes, mum” Tec moans in sleep.

By morning, Tec has completely disappeared.

He is as if he’d never begun to be.

As Sophocles said. It’s best that way.

Sphinx strolls off nonchalantly down the street

as if nothing had happened. Now male.

Teiresias-like. He tips his hat, perched

at a rakish angle over his feline ears,

and leers at every passing dame that catches his eye.

*

“COP SLAIN IN SLEAZY LOVE NEST BLOODBATH” The cops

gloat over the headline and can hardly

believe their eyes. They titter over the details

about the lingerie. “Who would have thought?”

“With him being so anti-all that sort of thing.”

“Oh, well, know what they say.” Cop number two

tosses the tabloid in the bin and gets

on with the day.