speech of parts

I don't know what I metaphor.
I tried ten puns to make her laugh.
No pun in ten did.

I'm a poet!        I ejaculated             prematurely-
She just left me                           dangling

a participle, part-disciple, part-adieu, pas de deux,
cut me to the Quink with her secateurs
(non sequitur)

my heart cut up as a found poem
split                         as an infinitive

I am in the present             tense
She,             the past,             perfect

(originally published in Blur , Friendly Street Reader #29, Shen & Amelia Walker (ed), March 2005.
reprinted in Best Australian Poems 2005 , Les Murray (ed.) Black Inc., November 2005)