Without a seeming thought the little one
In a squat pees on wooden back porch deck
And wattles away to turn and see what she has done
And says, “I’m Izz-gusting” so I realize that between
Her potty chair on floor and the adult size commode
That she seems to think will swallow her whole,
Little being someone has said “you’re disgusting,
The gustatory reflex response to the unclean
The vital prerequisite for ethnic cleansing,
Racial division so I made the distinction
For that baby girl between herself
And what some people see as IZZ-gusting.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.