Birthday Poem. for Keith Dowman

 What can you get for the man that has nothing?

We could glorify that nothing with many words…

it’s been done before many times,

but still,

all nothing does is

wink and stick out its tongue.

Response by Keith Dowman:

I know a nothing that is honest and true

clear and sure as the length of the day,

ever eager with a smile and a wanton kiss—

unfailingly feckless and improvident.

(feckless and improvident read like negative

qualities, but in the context of nothing, they

are seen as mere ornaments.)