10-30-2008 Paperboy Pizza

A noble tongue withers to taste the toil
of noble hands. His work would best entice
a dream of peace or gather worldly spoils
than bring about a belch. Besides, no spice

bewitches lips so much as morsels served
by joyful hearts. When a kind ruler frees
his heavy gates, subjects will fling trays curved
beneath a mass of meat and bread and cheese

in hopes that he might bless them with a bite.
The offering’s flavor can not matter. Veal
and rat both brim with grease the same stuffed tight
within a sausage. If he trusts this meal,

each swallow foretells changing social views
as swift as youthful messengers of news.