DREAMING

From time to time, Ming the Merciless,
(Relentless foe of Flash Gordon,
Former emperor of the planet Mongo)
Turns up in my dreams. Most often,
He has a character role -- an old soldier
Down on his luck, or a traffic cop
Trying to persuade angry chickens
To keep on their side of the road. Once
We were beggars and shared a tin bowl
Of quite horrible soup. My father
And Ming were for some reason friends.
Having recovered from seventeen bouts
Of certain death  -- including being tossed
Into three volcanoes and twice being thrown
Off cliffs and once being thrown off a cliff
Into a volcano -- Ming insists that
My father may return not much the worse
From having been buried for six years.

ON THE PLANET MONGO

Ming the Merciless had nine brothers and three sisters

All named Ming. Mongo’s stern laws of alliteration

Demanded that each of them have a sobriquet

Beginning with the letter M. Flash Gordon

Could never quite tell them apart and would come

Prepared for battle only to find Ming the Musical

Armed only with a celestina and a thumb-piano

Or Ming the Miraculous, who did card tricks.

Dale Arden would complain to Dr. Zarkov

“What is wrong with him? The Mings look nothing alike!

And three of them are women!”