Mistaken Identity 

Mistaken Identity

I really thought I must *be* the Invisible Man,
With waxen strips swaddled round a swollen head.
I stumbled, stood, scratched an itch, then ran and ran,
Even if my vacant limbs felt like heavy swinging lead.


Could I be indeed the solid ghost of H.G.Wells?
Or the empty effigy of a zombie's dummy?
Then a thousand tongues from a million hells
Said I wasn't invisible, merely a gummy mummy.


(published 'Star*Line' 1993)