Number two, from A Coney Island of the Mind.
"Sailing through the Straits of Demos,
we saw symbolic birds shrieking over us,
while eager eagles hovered, and elephants in bathtubs
floated past us out to sea, strumming bent mandolins
and bailing for old glory with their ears,
while patriotic maidens wearing paper poppies
and eating bonbons ran along the shores wailing after us.
And while we lashed ourselves to masts,
and stopped our ears with chewing gum,
dying donkeys on high heels sang love songs, and gay cows
flew away, chanting Athenaeum anthems, as their pods turned
to tulips and helicopters from Helios flew over us,
dropping free railway tickets from Lost Angeles to heaven,
and promising free elections, so that--
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
--so that we set up--
[LAUGHTER]
--So that we set up mast and sail on that swart ship
once more.
And so set forth once more, force
upon the Gobble sea, loaded with liberated Vestal Virgins
and discuss throwers reading Walden.
[LAUGHTER]
But shortly after reaching the strange suburban shores
of that great American demi-democracy,
looked at each other with a mild surprise,
silent upon a peak in Darien."
[APPLAUSE]
Darien, Connecticut.
[LAUGHTER]