e.g., so weary from my own bellyaching, I fell off
the edge of the third drink, the second dessert,
& was provoked to more dancing & necking
& to the shameful tuppence I tossed
to the pauper, & I confess
the migraine made me lose track of time,
the gut cramp had me on another line
after the ill-advised trade of this tit
for that tat, which got me stuck
in the last millennium’s traffic, thereby exacerbating
the past-life trauma of being ground
into the too-white flour & baked
into a dough rejected & sent
back to Ecclesiastes,
where I was deemed not purely enough bred &
consequently left off the ark, which is why
I am late & why I’m in no way
& no how to blame.