when the river runs backwards/

Centuries from now portraits will emerge

of middle school children posing with their

chins on  their forearms

and long after heroin and homelessness

have ravaged their bodies

and flowers beautifully arranged

in the funeral home parlor, someone

will scratch on the gray-paint, back

of the folding chair how they were,

in this moment of another's demise,

in love. "Johnny Loves Linda".

Curtis loves how Larry's hand gets

sticky from the sap of cut lilies,

starving for earth. (Earth being slang

for the niceties of restored existence).

Whatever I failed miserably to do,

the mice did with corn silk and insulation, much

like the hairs of an a*****e:

some are straight.

Some crooked. Others just lay down

pointing towards the stinky river.

Reviews

[W.k.kortas]

The notion of the chairs in funeral parlors (and aren't they arragned like a classroom--you'd think there'd be assigned seating) acting as proxies for their middle-school counterparts...well, there's just no one else who's writing that. The mysteries of life and death, mice making their nests and "the hairs of an a*****e." It shouldn't be magical, but it sure as hell is.

[mattavelli]

This was fun to read. Thanks for sharing.

[Samoda]

These are the pieces that make me wanna pick up a pen. Great write! I especially liked (Earth being slang for the niceties of restored existence) beautiful.........