Thoughts on a Line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's
The Song of Hiawatha Found Written on a Men's Restroom
Stall in an Exxon Station Outside Lubbock, Texas

May, 1979

I am a bug.
A small bug.
Crawling up the page.

See those periods?
Up there?
Down there?

They're turds.
My turds.
Bug turds.

So is the comma
in the very last line.

I am a bug.
A small bug.
Crawling down the page.

A-hum-diddle-diddle, a-hum-dee-dee.