A visual cacophony
This beautiful thing
To die a violent death could
Bring
an end to this begin-
ning.
A dismal dismantling
Of internal organs
weighed and measured to the gram
stuffed back into an empty cavity where they’d remain
Unattached.
And.
.Unadorned but for cotton bracelets
and zip lock bags.
!A macabre fresco of
birthmarks,
stretch marks,
freckles,
scars
and moles;
photographed and inspected as if the person that once lived
-there-
would have wished
but to be carved apart
Like a corn-fed turkey.
blood drained and a second-rate cosmetologist attempts to restore a corpse by caking on theater make-up that lingers in fingernails and wrinkles and rolls.
Ushered into uncomfortable pews
they tried not to laugh at the
caricature
that sort of resembled someone they used to know.
The family
of A living memory of this dead thing
To live in those that loved
Until they too were just a beautiful ugly thing
Then just a name
On a mailing list.
What an excellent rant, perfectly suited to its subject.
And look at what I found:
Mean Week, Brevity Style
October 27th, 2010 § 5 Comments
It is “Mean Week” over at HTMLGiant, which means the blogger folks say mean and provocative things about other writers and other magazines and other blogs and everyone gets all snarky in the comments and insults the original blog author, and in this way, if we understand correctly, everyone gets a good chuckle and site stats go through the roof. Oh, the internet is such a wonderful place.
May I use this opportunity to say that I forgive Jason for calling me before dawn (I’m on the west coast) to say that he wished he could excerpt my novel Burning Silk on Oddball except that it’s erotic.
Jason, perhaps 5% is erotic. It was the waking me up to say it.
Now, can I say that Rebecca Solnit is the Joyce Carol Oates of Creative NonFiction? It’s Mean Week so I’m letting myself say this mean thing, way down at the bottom of a rant on embalming. (snark, snark.)
i would go and say something on your blog…yet it has no content…neither does your book…snarf snarf. just kidding i haven’t read it. and where is that video of the good old days? Back in Emerson when we were we lads and lasses, in class…laughing and drinking shit wine??? good to hear from you Destiny.