Brummagem
Plainly, some things are just not fair.
Industrial, proud Birmingham
Came to be called “brummagem”—lair,
It seems, of all things tawdry; damned,
It seems, by counterfeiters back
In sixteen thirty-seven—cheap,
It seems, meretricious—flash crap—
Imitations sold by slick creeps.
Ridiculed for a few false groats—
Noun and adjective “brummagem,”
Stuns a decent city—connotes
Sick merchandise akin to phlegm.
(2/27/11)