Bones of the Defunct Chinamen

[sgt.null]

Bones of the Defunct Chinamen

a splatter of grey matter
a backbone beat where
the Donner party meat.
outside Sebastopol.
sharpening their milk
teeth, grinding sugar
skulls in their sleep.

raising mercury filled pigs -
feeding on slop traps and
tar pits, filling their bellies
with ambergris, pearl ash,
potash and clabber. manna
dropped from thatched
roofs [holes in the ceiling]
filling brass glue pots.

honorable cannibals drinking
heavy water from the river to
the sea; what a great sea the
ocean is. waters. colored, dull.
the Franklin Reality Model!

you can smell the wind in their
coats. King of Prussia blue.
subtle shock of lapine hematoma.
suffering from Braxton Hicks.
failed hunters [and gatherers]
armed with daisy cutters [a day]
and bouncing Betty's. chemical
trails - vapor tags. seeding the
open ground with zippers, drill
bits, nickels and spark plugs.

wild swings and roundabouts.
wearing x-ray specs, mounted
with quizzing glass. praying the
magnetic ok will copay the cliche.

after spring their muted chauffeurs
drive a three car funeral while the
survivors and surveyors line the
the parking lots, shouting at passing
clouds. paid for by the US Treasury
with sawbucks and greenbacks
earned by sawbones on sawhorses.

beyond the copper beach lies a
a blue wood where they are all
allowed to walk home at last...