The old lady in perpetual black
she fingers her beads
she is reading God’s collected works

The palace guard cleans his pistol
he can only work nights
he’s studying to be a butcher
he is cleaning his butcher’s manual

God in His Heaven
a big anti-Cuban cigar in His mouth
He’s studying to be a dictator
He doesn’t want to work nights
He is reading El Supremo’s collected works

El Supremo in his palace
he is studying to be a dog-catcher
he has just put out a red alert on dachshunds
“their bellies are dangerously close to the ground”
“their bellies will scar our highway system”
he only reads his own collected works

And the dachshunds
they can hardly read at all