Christopher Mulrooney

Incidentalism

the progression features
a whole like this
host of characters
Armagnac the baker
of living goods
Beelzebub who manufactures
cakewalks in the rain
Cornhusker the world-beater
and his theatre of cruel ties

an Alpha Beta of assortments

Devlin the mongrel wear
of debonair defalcations hawks
Evangeline who sings in the shower
of golden mythology
Franz the pipe merchant
laid end to end to end
Graham of the dyspeptic crackers
mercifully really keening
Horatio wandering endlessly
in a forest of speculation
Iona with a room out back
and a hayrick bed
Joseph wandering aimlessly
and plumb tuckered out
Kevin who wants to know
whither you are bound from where too
Lyle the oceangoing sailor
and his travelogues so fair
Montgomery the placer-mining
company man upon his feet
Nils who never seems to know
what is expected of him anyway
Olivia the trade school mascot
barking up the wrong tree
Quentin always asking just when
no wrong questions are needed
Ronald who wants to know as well
what wonders world last where

size more than actuality
is a persistent claim to fame

Susanna would like to hold fast
to the adherents of malefactors
Tompkins wants to know still more
than daily bread and wine and water
Ursula has her cave and friends
who keep a time clock stamping

these are the professional elements

Veracity has her place keep clean
she says the memory of that
Waldemar has this to say
upon the rocks seals bark like dogs
Xenos has a friend in the business
wants to know if there are any connections
Yarby has a steeplechase to ride
around the track (was here to there)
Zeb has this to say at last
my friends there was a man here once

at the tradeware conference they sing
and submit their papers on the thing