from 'Clangings'
       

Okay, here's what we did. Dad was a quark.
I took my shogun out. And the jerk grinned!
Toads marched him to where the marshland
meanders, where woods gave such a bark

I still get a wince. Open fire, said Dickey.
We loaded him, black hole, in the swamp van.
It was premium cable! I aimed at his midline,
silver blanked into him. He'd been less empty,

I'd have hit a vital. Roses twined in a scythe,
me and Dickey grieved. "Thou Shalt Not"
and all that smearwort. On the hospice lot,
weeds sprouted tips, like: get a life, take a life.

We ditched the van at first intermission,
D. and me, we'd had our glister of venom.
There once was a time I'd have said scram.
This time a guilty sun gilded my stun gun.

"Hey you, what'd you do with your Dad?"
yelled the groundskeeper mowing—yawn,
at least I'm a living—hospitable grass. Then:
"can't dig here with that hole in your head."

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Copyright © 2012 Steven Cramer All rights reserved
from Crazyhorse
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission