Midas' Barber

It was so difficult,
being the only one who knew
the king had ass's ears.
Barbers like to chat
as they chop — now
he must live bursting …
Desperate, he scooped
an ear-shaped hole in earth:
as if engendered by
his very breath, reeds grew up
and whispered through
a veil of sound, the truth —
and he was in the soup!
It was only then he saw
how funny it all was —
about kings and barbers,
about the tongue-swelling
tyranny of secrets,
and, in the dim room
with its locked door,
those long, grey, hairy ears
uncurling from under
a golden hat.