Peg Leg

What is that synchopated sound,

Tip-tap, tip-tapping down the hall?

Close your eyes and count to ten,

I'm coming now as I was coming then

Faster than you might've expected

A peg-leg kid to go.

No, it was never really found;
Sometimes, sometimes I felt pain
As though it were affixed there
Plunging through the soft perfume of your hair
Deeper than you must have wanted
A peg-leg heart to go.

I don't want sympathetic sounds
Whispered whimpers in my ear
Open eyes! The game is through,
Loan me your leg or let me lean on you
Hartder than you would ever wish
A peg-leg man to do.

Nik Habermel, May 1995