Headlines

Headlines

Meadowlarks sing

to the dead man who got sick

with sorrow.

Covered in death’s icy mosses

the dead man lies flat, laughing

sardonically at heaven.

He wants to read the headlines to

ponder and resolve the riddle of his days.

For his brain is not swamped

with the poisoned blood of lust.

On the day of his death he read

news items about what’s happening in Iran.

Suddenly the Ayatollahs of the revolution

piled in his heart and they suppurated

in his soul and he knew he had been cheated

by life, so he died and meadowlarks pleaded

for his asylum in heaven.

The Ayatollahs laughed, and then there was silence,

except for the hiss of his rotting body.