A Conversation Piece That Comes to a Head*
For Charis
Off to Denmark we go
for a visit with John Dillermand
(aka John Wienerman)
A man clad in a red & white
striped bathing suit (the tank top
shirt & shorts kind)
He often sports a purple & yellow
tuque atop his head & his
bright blue eyes & bushy black
mustache round out a rather
unique look – oh, he doesn’t
wear shoes & he has a
magic penis.
Indeed, his red & white
striped ‘diller’ shoots out
his crotch like a determined
snake a sneaky snake
a proud snake
John’s diller
pulls apples from trees
walks dogs
saves babies
steals ice cream cones
stops lions
stops traffic
throw things
catches things
John’s diller holds
a second racket
so john can play
badminton with himself
Dillermand lives with his
great-great grandmother, Oldemor
a bull of a woman unafraid
to use her shotgun to shoot
down balloons John’s
magic penis grips with
all its might as he floats
upside down across a happy
blue sky in a neighbourhood
not near you
Off to Denmark we go
for a visit with John Dillermand
(aka John Wiernerman)
*This is a poem about a kid’s show that exists in Denmark called John Dillermand. Thank you to Charis for showing me the CBC article about the show. To read the article, click here.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 