MAGIC
A STRANGE MAGIC
Immortality is BIG right now! declares our
culture vulture Russell Smith in the Globe & Mail
Does he jest? Or is this a re-invention of death with
arty arrogance? Russell goes on to wax poetic about:
the value of death itself I read recently too that
Catherine Deneuve has paid seven figures to replicate
the scent of her 25 yr. old sister killed in a crash in ’67
The value of death is its power if i may be so bold its
magic Our troubadour of boxes urns +cremains What
scent would you pay a King’s ransom to replicate? Your
dog’s breath? Your husband’s inner thigh? A baby’s head?
Brisket in the oven? (a fatty shetl staple)
Scent of fear as you watch urn with sister-in-law’s cremains
placed in a cubby-hole with dandelions by a wailing 6 yr. old boy
who knows his days are now numbered The wailing went on+on
Scent of boys tears mixed with decomposing clouds of glory wafting
It is a fact that humans are immortal until the age of 6
The value of death is the curious feeling that everything is beautiful
You know the one that you have at funerals + the next day you resume
dreams of becoming a drunk a beggar a holy-fool
__
born like this
into this
as chalk faces smile
as Mrs. Death laughs
we are born like this
into this
into these carefully mad wars
(Dinosauria, we Charles Bukowski 1920 – 1994)
Spring 2016
