The soles of Louis’s feet

are cats’ whiskers

When Louis Lorch

the base of the family pyramid

Lalla won’t put her paw on the stool

      so Adolf cracks his whip –

Too late to wonder

if you were right about vaudeville

after the ragtime Pantaloon

Adolf Althoff

is used to riding tigers

The doctor has no anaesthetic

for a Jewish whore -

Get up and walk

barks the SS doctor –

Irene is feeding

when SS barge in, strip the blanket

Your turn next barks the Nazi

who doesn’t let Sissi say goodbye

Though he creaks like a tree

bending under the aajej

When the circus folds its tent

and beds down its animals

curled up like a worm

on her school bench

tigers ripped apart

their rations of raw meat

before it grew icicles,

Adolf doesn’t like to be told what to do

least of all, by Gestapo.

The audience is spellbound

by elephants swaying