A Halloween Dream
A tattered Raggedy Ann Doll cleaved to a steel girder,
Howls!
A cracked skull rolls in an unforgiven wind.
A sneaker lies on its side.
Houses destroyed by fire.
Hanging hands, dangle from trees drip pus.
A clenched fist sticks up from Earth,
slowly opens, stretching its fingers.
A Jack-O-Lantern illuminates nighttime, the sky ghostly pale gray.
Eyes melt into porridge.
On a gurney, in a morgue, I woke up in a body bag,
screaming!

Family Photo
Thee children
All dressed up in their checkered short pants
We never really knew each other
I am the one with the teddy bear
I am the little brother
The only one
Still alive

A Halloween Poetry Reading
I went to a poetry reading,
held in a huge body bag.
Looked at death,
pale as slush.
Fell asleep.

Old Cemetery
Tombstones are sinking into the earth,
obscured from view.
Is this an omen,
forgotten in an age-old garden of death?
Drowning as flood waters seep in,
the ground moves its ugly head.
to swallow up the dead in the mud!
The flowers have long since withered.
The rocks have turned to dust,
and trees petrified.
Buried in a wasteland under a scorching sun.
now all is silent and still.

I Forgot All About My Father’s Funeral
At the cemetery
Someone closed the limousine door
On my four fingers…

Cremation
A pacemaker explodes,
flying burning body parts
littered a death chamber.
Pieces of skin cleaved to walls,
melted into heaps of ashes, bones.
Mixed mulch, he was six feet three inches.
His remains fit into
a small Dixie ice cream cup.

Dilemma
Trees scream
As red beetle bugs eat them out
Cancer
Frighteningly
Branches bend break
All
Are
Elbows
Discolored elbows knots snarled
Like sunny-side-up eggs
Sizzled
Dried
Broken
Burned
I could not
Watch
Her
Wither.

Voodoo Doll Found In The Teacher’s Drawer
Here.
Take this doll!
One of my students made it.
A rope around my neck.
Spear drove into my chest.
How tired this doll seems!
It is Dressed just like me.
Tighten this rope whenever you want.
Plunge the spear in deep if you want.
Throw it to the ground.
Step on it.
Or give it a name.
Assume it has a heart
Remove the rope.
Remove the spear.
What is this doll trying to tell me?
I am sorry if I missed a cry for help.
Take this doll from me.
I have no time nor room for hate.