I haven't checked the audience out.
But before I read this poem, I want
to stress that although it's something that really happened
to me is also allegory.
And you'll understand why I say this after I've read the poem.
It's called "The Day Young Zimmer
Fought for his Life with the One Armed Storekeeper".
"Always he had seemed bilious, somehow capable of mayhem.
But I don't know why he started swinging.
Perhaps because I only spent a penny at a time.
Perhaps because he had it last decided
to make the world into a place where one armed men could
wholly live.
At any rate, he's pledged my pimply crew cut head
and abruptly knocked me back into confections.
He cornered me in boyhood.
And before I could grow pubic hairs,
it was time to defend my tender life and the rights of two
armed people everywhere.
I aimed my scruffy buster brown right for his gonads
and got him square.
And then I ran until I dropped.
To this day, one armed people make me sweat.
I avoid railroad tracks, ringers, and bandsaws,
all places where I might suddenly be equalized."
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]