Poem by Bobby Goosey, LEGERDEMAIN

                                                   Hieronymus Bosch, THE CONJUROR

Bobby Lee Goosey

 

                                  Legerdemain

Abracadabra, hocus-pocus, I am the magic man,
Prestidigitation and no hesitation, the man of legerdemain,
Give me a rabbit; I’ll make you a rainbow,
Give me a lizard; I’ll make you a train,
Give me a bluebird; I’ll make you an airplane—So!
So goes the magic of legerdemain.
 
Abracadabra, hocus-pocus, I am the magic man,
Prestidigitation and no hesitation, the man of legerdemain.
Give me a cruel man; I’ll make him a halo,
Give me all frenzy and I’ll make it tame,
Give me insane souls and I’ll make them sane—So!
So goes the magic of legerdemain.
 
Abracadabra, you ask how I do it; you ask me, the magic man,
Prestidigitation without hesitation, with words and with legerdemain.
Give me a sound and I’ll make you a pearl—Lo!
Give me a letter, I’ll make you a flame,
Give me a word and I’ll make you a world—So!
So goes the magic of legerdemain,
The magic of words and of legerdemain.

[from Bobby Goosey's Compendium of Perfectly Sensible Nonsense]