Q

U‘s mate, O with a new root,
the one capital letter
which probes below the baseline,
here’s to the quirky beauty

of its tail, that fluent tongue
stuck from a wide-open mouth,
that elegant half-mustache
parted quickly toward the east,

that antique handle we grasp
to lift up the monocle
of our alphabet’s monarch,
that final flourish of the quill.

Michael McFee