In a Yoruba creation myth, the god in charge of making human beings drank too much, and that's how white men came to be.

When the table
turns, the hand resists:

a drag that makes
the potter's wheel

become a rhythm section, needlestick
a stimulant, the catch a can,

some touch and timelines into an
uncanny centrifuge of boosts and beats,

the standard tunes transmogrified
to hiccup-arts all down the street, with feline felonies of sly

invention -- licks of scratch -- unending love become at last
merely a men, a mensch, a mention,

all because
bad vinyl snagged

the holy handyman's attention.

Heather McHugh is the author of several books of poetry and literary essays. Her most recent book publications are Hinge & Sign: Poems l968-l993 (National Book Award finalist); and her essays, Broken English: Poetry and Partiality. A new collection of poems, The Father of the Predicaments, will be published by Wesleyan/UPNE in September, 1999.

 Heather

 McHugh