DEAD

by Doc Marek (docmarek.tumblr.com)
(Indiana)

I saw the marrow sucking vagabonds dragging through the catacombs
beneath a thousand weary rush hour feet,
their eyes as vehemently crimson as arterial flow,
their gaze transparent like opium den dwellers dishing out sixteen thousand for a kilo of poppy tears
only to end up climbing the ladder of life to stand on a barstool
with a rope around their necks
and a prayer on their lips.

I saw toddlers standing naked and hypothermic in winter alleyways,
teeth chattering like typewriters
while aborted newborn babies laid unnaturally tearless,
side by side with instruction manuals in black trash bags,
invisible to passerby’s who perused the sidewalk,
pinned down with fear like a seventeen year old kid
slinging an M-16 in Vietnam.

I saw government officials and bankers in Armani suits
accented with black earpieces emitting static into their brainwashed minds
as they sifted through tinder on Wall Street,
reading the journals of their trade, awaiting the day when they’d be lined up side by side down the sidewalk,
prostrating toward Washington with their teeth on the curb
ready for the unavoidable presidential boot-heel
to grind their smile into the concrete.

I saw silhouettes of prisoners
outside homeless shelters riddled with track marks and scabs,
breathing green mold into polluted smog filled skies
while begging for pocket change in Venice,
chasing dragons on stolen bicycles,
constructing paraphernalia out of scraps of aluminum foil,
prostituting themselves for promethazine syrup
and a dream under a cardboard box behind the supermarket.

I heard prehistoric fossils coming alive out of tar pits,
only to be emitted from exhaust pipes and allowed to float to the edge of the ozone,
blocking out the sun and killing more creatures than God's great flood,
only this time there was no ark and no biological bank to restore life again;
no, Noah wasn’t given three strikes.

I smelled the sweet smell of death in the most lively people,
covering their despair by showing their not so pearly whites,
chain smoking cigarettes,
spending more time with spirits from a bottle instead of the ones in the book,
worshiping nothing as soon as the bandwagon made its way on the edge of town;
ignoring the rapture.

I saw scientists and priests holding secret grove meetings
and dancing in arctic deserts
under full moons and ice crystals creating beautiful color schemes in the night skies.

I SAW THOSE SAME BABIES BURNING,
SMELLED THEIR FLESH, KNEW THEIR FATE,
TURNED MY HEAD, HELD MY BREATH,
PRETENDED I WAS DEAF, BLIND, DUMB,

DEAD.

I pretended I was dead.

I turned my f--king head,
and died.