after Mother Goose
by Esther Greenleaf Murer
Hours of playing riffs
on "Brother, can you spare a dime"
have netted the busker his pint.
He eyes a flock of starlings
wondering how they would taste
with biscuits and gravy,
and suddenly a new song begins
to pirouette in his mind, a song
about a murder of crows
morphing into a gift
for the president's table, succulent
as the best Greek horsemeat.
In the Oval Office the president
signs an executive order: "To him
that hath shall be given."
In the Green Room the first lady
serves coffee and truffles to wives
of corpulent felines.
In the Rose Garden the press
poses inconvenient questions
in reference to dirty laundry,
and a suitably low-ranking aide
ends up with a snootful
of pâté de corbeau.
Esther Greenleaf Murer lives in Philadelphia. She has previously contributed to The NewVerseNews.