The Song of the Shirt

            Stitch! stitch! stitch!

            In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
            And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
            She sang the song of the shirt. Thomas Hood

I walked by the fish hatchery
with a poem in my clout
pressed out with bold stitch witchery.

It purports to be a masterpiece,
but it’s a shout-
out to Itchy and Scratchy,

at large in the fish hatchery.
They’ve both put fish in their PANTS, for crying out
loud—call it fish bitchery!

And wouldn’t you know, the Latter-Day
Saints, who are all about
God and who work in the fish hatchery,

sent a letter back to me,
giving me quite a lot to pout
about, I’ll say, from the standpoint of iron-on embroidery?

They told me, “Get past your reluctancy!”
They told me, “Go catch a trout
“that’s swimming out there in the fish hatchery,
“lured by your dangling-ass kitschery!”