Pageantry and Savages

A Cold Eye Cast On Shipwrecked Castaways

Kitchen Table Of Contents

1. Spin~Stir~Crazy

2. Taking Out The Garbage

3. Pat: An American Still-Life

4. The Leper-Con

Epilog~On~The~Fire~Put

Spin~Stir~Crazy

Blinking and unfettered
she follows thunder close
and takes apart the air

A noise she
hears a flash
she sees a

well filled up with tears
not all her own
she draws the bucket to
her lips and gulps
her mother down

Taking Out The Garbage

The world is a mirror

The audacity of them
To peek their faces through
And break the line

Broken water and a mess
Cleaned up but never gone
"You've stained the stones
before you even ever learned to dress"

And when she stares into the world

she only sees her shiny teeth
she only sees her rosy cheeks
she only sees her sparkling eyes

she cannot see the devil for the trees
she cannot take the afterbirth

Pato: An American Still-Life

In his dream she is a dinosaur

He wakes and drinks his coffee from a mug
Signing papers, taking turns

It's all forgetting

Oh, his shoes still strike the pavement
His clothes still hide his skin

But in his dream she is a dinosaur

And he
he is the fleeing comet
His tail between her legs
He's the fleeing comet
Streaking out away
Away from her
Searching out a different earth to scorch
Always almost
disappearing

Or, was that a meteor, now?

The Leper-Con

Sixty-five, his feet still grow a
little every year

He stubs his toes on things
he doesn't see -
things not even in this town

And every year
some joker begs
an ear-box just
for buying him a
pair of floppy shoes

He says,
"I'll tell ya the number'a clowns
can fit in that car...
ZERO clowns if I have anything to say about it."

And they say,
"Ah, shut up. Your feet are already home,
why don't you follow?"

And he says, "

...well, you get the picture.

Epilog~On~The~Fire~Put

...and somewhere over denver the patron saint
of actors cackled.
And cooked.
And rested easy as his work was never done.