I began to strip off

My clothing

Till I remained naked

In the middle of nowhere

Shouting

In a unknown tongue

(One way or another,

Who would have understood me?)

Yet they didn’t arrest me

For violation of public decency

To stop the shouts

They treated me to absinthe

And dressed me to the hilt

But my shoe-laces

Didn’t coordinate

With their tie

I didn’t leave any change

For a gratuity

I didn’t fall diagonally