EMERODS
				    
	Emerods (1 Samuel 4-6)

I don't know what it feels like
to have an emerod "in my secret parts,"
but I figure it's not good.
What I know about emerods
is that Webster's is free of them
but the Philistines were not
after they won the Ark of the Covenant,
a pretty crappy trophy when
their idols would bow to it in the night with a 
thud and a crackle, pressing stone noses to the floor
before that box
as the people nearby
died and itched and shouted out:
"Take that thing to the next town!"
until the next town
came down with emerods
in their secret parts.

So they gave the Ark to a pair of cows
who knew, of course, what to do,
to walk it home
to Israel, the Philistines watching that cart
stumble itself down the road
and over the rise.