--- M I C H A E L   M A G E E

He was like
a trickster.  Elizabeth 
Bishop once said

that a simile
should be true

in at least
two ways.  Mine
is, then, disqualified.

He was like
a trickster, this

is true; but 
only in the 
sense that his

penis was detachable;
and even this

is misleading, since
it was only
detachable once and

with difficulty; as
such, he was

only like a
trickster once.  After
that he was

more like an
emergency room patient.