Funeral, Mineral, Vegetable

In a responsible fashioning
of bows onto illness

make sure your face
is not recognizable
and be there by four o'clock
quoting entirely
the paragraph
by heart I do not mean
all things had better fit
in a packet
invented for subduing
the equator; the effort

of a million letters and calls
to restore a border
between houses

and the sea
is under martial law
and if you think about it
they are offering the same brand
of the same model
at a better price
in the trunk of their car
past the shore
there are poisonous snakes
at the bottom.

Copyright © 2006 Jibade-Khalil Huffman All rights reserved
from Bat City Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission