TUSCALOOSA

when I woke up
my name...was gone
as if it had jumped ship

took a train and
ended up incognito
in Tuscaloosa

as an unsuccessful
travelling
salesman

who the hell
I was
...I couldn't tell you

it was as if
I was being
slowly erased

things too
started to lose
their names

looking at me
startled like
people

shocked to see themselves
suddenly in the ****
walking down the High Street

only a telephone
remembered its name
and started talking to me

in a high shrill voice
"Ring ring ringringring!"
it said

"Ring ring ringringring!"
it said again
but although I

remembered its name
I didn't remember
what it was for

So it just rang and rang
itself into
silence

"Shut it!"
I shouted silently
"Honey..?"

somebody who
claimed to be
my wife

( what ever that
was )
handed me words

like hieroglyphics
written upon
the air

"Tusaloosa! I said.
"Wot...?"
she hieroglyphed

"Tuscaloosa...that's
my name!"
I told her

for want of
something
better to say

"Tuscaloosa!"
I kept saying
trying to make it

make sense.
but it didn't.
nothing..didn't

my wife started weeping
into the telephone thing
and that's how I

came to be here
wherever here
...is?