makes much more sense
than Halloween corporate
apple razor lies
training ground for young greedy consumers
groaning great bags of candy
old Mexican holiday
Mediaeval and Pre-Columbian
but this Anglo mutation
started a few years ago
woman paraded through the night
a banner honoring her dead mother
now a big deal
puppets stilt monsters drums fantastic bikes
wind through downtown
to a railroad platform
giant puppets propped on scaffolding
torches, a pink Golem
people drumming, dancing
smell of frankensense, myrth
I move about taking pictures
stabs of light piercing murky darkness
my own dead accompany me
Mike yellow from his failed liver
Kevin sunk two weeks dead
body & mattress one
Big Jeff his crack burned throat
Cosmos cancer wrapped around his heart
Sara played & pinned like a bug
fat rolls folded out a surgeon's dream
my father huge & bloated, heartless
my mother insane cross-eyed lips
dripping brown bile
my sister a tiny shredded slash over pre bones
twirling torches, cubes of fire
angels dance w/burning wings
Katrinas, bone wedding couple
dance death & life & love & lust
the ultimate dry fuck
then they burn the Golem
the simulated Man
the multiplex
the mall
the sour bellies of politicians
in the end only dust
only thin paper dust
but the dead give us memories
wisdom
beyond the bright slash of now
beyond the harping yowl
of gnash & process
the dead know
what they missed
the dead know
what is missing
