Cardinal Ideograms

    A mouth.  Can blow or breathe,

      be a funnel, or Hello.

    A grass blade or a cut.

    A question seated.  And a proud

      bird's neck.

    Shallow mitten for two-fingered hand.

    Three-cornered hut

      on one stilt.  Sometimes built

      so the roof gapes.

    A policeman.  Polite.

      Wearing visored cap.

    O unrolling,

      tape of ambiguous length

      on which is written the mystery

      of everything curly.

    A step,

      detached from its stair.

    The universe in diagram:

      A cosmic hourglass.

      (Note enigmatic shape,

      absence of any value of origin,

      how end overlaps beginning.)

      Unknotted like a shoelace

      and whipped back and forth,

      can serve as a model of time.

    Lorgnette for the right eye.

      In England or if you are Alice

      the stem is on the left.

  A grass blade or a cut

      companioned by a mouth.

      Open?  Open.  Shut?  Shut.