Evergreen

Photo by Dapper Dan 9...originally appeared in Mayari Lit Volume 2, Issue 4

EVERGREEN

It’s another alabaster morning on the flatlands
another bone dry morning on the flatlands
another bone dry morning on the stillborn flats
one more stone dry morning on the stillborn drab
Eisenhower era closet collection in perpetual dusk

Smell the grass cut two days ago
edged and trimmed around the headstones
just this morning side gates
thrown open and mysterious
like unmarked masoleum mold traps
 
Birds ominously and anonymously silent
siren squalling in the distance a slow
slip of the traction up the foothill
to the middle of sideshow venues
waiting all this time for your fall
 
Yes come down on all us climbers
you overarching melancholy big top
reliable deflector of sunlight pools
it monopolizes hostile credit
on the edges of a massive, granite 
memorial plaque.

Alabaster bone memory of all you
who died in a single day
in a single place
stone dry stillborn
overlooking the Evergreen Flats.