THE STORY NEEDS TO REPLAY

This is the corpse from the Waiting 4 The Bus open mic on February 16, 2009. Featured poets that night were Pam Miller and Kristy Bowen:
I worry about your Harvey Keitel face
wearing the cabbage
I lifted from the grocery store
a man with a gas can and a box of matches
softly promising forevers

I can’t help it
the story needs to replay

scratchy temporary meandering shadows
love’s pink lightning
babbling your name in the moist
secret language of May

no one could tell me all the signs were not
an invitation you judas

slippery elusive grip
each finger charged with a different memory
in deepest pink
storming your ramparts
with kamikaze hands
my heart comes unglued and

I can’t help it

shakes itself to pieces
summon up remembrance
like crazed sailors
down the gangplanks of your chest

but strong and stubborn he stands
any excuse
to wear a mask and cape
trekking stubbourn through
this season of fatigue

the story needs to replay

for every variable the outcome shifts
to constant decay leaves its doughy trail
everybody flow
there to drink silence

the story needs to replay.


. . .

These words aren't mine, so I invite anyone to write their own corpse using this source material. Nina Corwin may want you to call it something else, since it won't technically be a corpse any more--but that's up to you.