Maybe I should have known the world had changed;
I knew the sign, I saw it everywhere —
Such portent, yes, is rarely seen, but still,
Could I have been so daft, so unaware?
A wanderer without a home or bed,
Let loose upon an unsuspecting town:
Cut free from all encumbrance and restraint
Until such time as time itself came down —
Laconic as I was, I had the words
At my command to set the world aright:
To take misfiring adjectives to task
In wrath, or maybe better yet – in spite —
On purple waves of sin and turpentine,
No rest, no peace for one who missed the sign