ballad of the stolen headboard

A gang of disenchanted
Sub-urban socialites
Drunk on whiskey
Have found your headboard

Grinning in the darkness
Outside your apartment
In the sick thickness
Of that alley, they scheme

Logic locked
Neurons spiral and collide
As violent and silent as
The stars above them.

Coveting fingers graze
Artificial, yet organic
Trees, iron, and
God only knows what

They envision:
A sculpture, a shrine,
A sanctuary, a ship,
God incarnate

Whiskey logged
Limbs have never known
Speeds such as this
Bending not Breaking

Black and white concrete
Stripes blur past red signs
That bring no pause
Drunks slur and soliloquize

Your headboard passes
Them too quickly
To be acknowledged
(It is something else now)

For Gary

You always told me to hold on to your ‘nub’
And it was embarrassing, to go around holding that
Maimed pinky finger of yours, while you just chuckled
I resented that you called me ‘mo’, until you no longer could
No one took up that nickname, after your death
It died with you, but wasn’t buried in the same mahogany casket
Do you know how much she spent on it?
If you did, why you’d have turned over by now
I tried searching for your pinky finger, in the days after you cut it off
I felt it was the least I could do
But you sent me on a wild goose chase for it
I was never even looking in the right vicinity
You know, I could have helped you, if you weren’t so dead-set
On turning everything into a joke
It doesn’t seem all that funny anymore
At your funeral, I tried to wake you up
I took your advice, willingly for once
I stood on my tip toes (I wore my ruby slippers)
And reached in and grabbed what was left of your little finger
I tugged it, over and over and over and over
Until your daughter realized that her daughter was making a scene
‘Honey, he’s not there’ but I kept tugging
‘Honey, don’t.’ but I kept tugging
‘STOP!’ and that was that.
It seems like not much has changed since your death
I’m still grasping for fingers that aren’t there.

Remorse

I broke your vase
Terribly sorry
I’ll replace it
Hope you understand

Terribly sorry
About the whole…
Hope you understand
It was my mistake

About the whole…
Well, she had it coming
It was my mistake
But seriously, goddamn

Again, I apologize
I’ll replace it
It’s inexcusable that
I broke your vase