Buddha's Tooth
Of course, my resemblance is
strictly occidental.
By all that's holy, I'm
the gift of the gob.
Here comes a chopper:
you must bow and scrape.
Roll out the red carpet
of your tongue.
I am a far better draw
than the Queen. Some crown.
I am not in Taipei:
that one's up a gum tree.
Feel it, the pull of the tooth:
fang for the memory.
[May 1999]