Bag End

Bag End

A plastic bag had soared above

The grocery parking lot.

It hovered fifty feet at least,

Providing food for thought.

It billowed out—a small balloon

To carry tiny things

Around the world in eighty days—

A substitute for wings.

It made me somehow hopeful, then,

To see it float in air,

Defying its appointed tasks,

As if it weren’t aware

That bag designers wanted it

To carry things to cars;

Instead, it floats and contemplates

A voyage to the stars.

And later on, another bag—

Much larger, in the road—

Seemed fixed on getting in our way—

We hesitated, slowed.

And as I looked more pensively,

A thought began to nag:

It seemed to be in search of me …

Impatient body bag?

A gust then blew it out of sight—

Somewhere back there, behind.

But winds could not at all dispel

That image in my mind.

And as I drove away with haste

Below September’s moon,

I heard a sepulchral voice:
"Fare well! I’ll see you soon!”

1. Dumb …

“Yes, you should feel beholden,” said

The statue with the golden head.

2. … and Dumber …

“Oh, what was that bee holdin’,” cried

The waspish cop that promptly died.

3. ... and Dumbest

He said, “Well, I be holdin’ aces high”—

Then showed his hand and watched the others cry.

Shakespeare Couplet: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (49)

So “Pyramus” concludes. The lovers go

To bed. And Puck returns with magic glow. (5.1)