TWO POEMS FOR SIEGMAR

TWO POEMS WRITTEN FOR SIEGMAR

Before there was an Emperor

There was the Emperor’s cat

Which, by sheer force of personality,

Compelled the Emperor into being.

Five cats have done their best

To make something of me.

Alas! Two dogs had other plans

And so I am not an Emperor.

This much I know: One spring day,

Around the time I was being born,

The poet Edith Sitwell had brought

Her ailing brother Osbert to New York.

I made my debut at the Polyclinic

Opposite the old Madison Square Gardens;

They were a few blocks uptown

At the St. Regis. At 4 A.M., while my father

Was hailing a cab on 116^th Street, Edith,

In a huge turban and strange silver robe

Confronted the man at the desk.

“There are noises in the wall,”she said

“Plainly, some poor nun has been immured there

And wishes to be released. If you give me the tools

I will free her myself.” The clerk sighed,

Saying, “Dame Edith, we have told the Archbishop.”

Sixty years have passed and only now

Have I learned this. When I am ninety

I expect to know wonders.