How dare they
disrespect my bones.
I was brought in
with great fanfare
sirens wailing
like wounded wildebeests
My attendants bore me
upon their oxen shoulders
as if I were some king’s prize
My spit and blood stained
their mannish backs.
In rooms whirling with lights
and antiseptic glitter, they
poked me with diamond tipped needles
and the poisons and potions
turned my lips and piss purple.
Well still after all of that
my heart went
its own separate way.
And the rest of me is wheeled
rockily on this gurney.
I’m covered in white sheets
as if I’m the rare sweets
of the banquet.
Where are the wildebeests?
This hall is cold and silent
except for my wheel
clattering and shaking
like a palsied foot
I’m stripped of gown and dignity.
Barcodes are painted on my toes--
broken piano keys
no more to be licked by tongues
or stroked by fingers
out the scratched and bruised back door
I go alone to uncertain journey.
From WHEN DOGS BARK ... now at Amazon and Barnes&Noble
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