the rascals

everyone hates grave robbers

—they are more maligned

despised

spat upon

and denied

than the bum on the street,

the dictators of history,

and mother-in-laws everywhere,

combined

why?

quite simply

because the latter

are all merely symptoms

of the disease

while the grave robbers

are the ultimate rascals

digging up the victims

to expose the pathogen itself

to the masses

infected with it

by god, yes,

it is terrible,

terrifying,

blasphemous heresy

—and, often the most effective refrain,

'inane conspiracy'—

but the truth?


the truth doesn't give a shit. 

and the truth is:

no one wants to hear it

or see it

or, for the love of god,

listen to anyone actually SPEAK it

because, of course,

it robs us of our ability

to go on believing it,

adhering to it,

conceding to the mass-hallucination of it,

this thing

we are all so invested in

and collectively insisting

on naming 'reality'

this thing

we can't stop animating

with all the parts we've been playing

even as

the death knell intones

even as

armies of the undead

spill into every street

running rampant

on a program called 'living'

but those dirty dogs, you know,

they just won't quit

all rib cages and patchy fur

they can SMELL IT

—the rich nutrition

in the marrow

of the bones

deep under the surface

and so

seemingly infected

with some insane antibody of their own

these animals

just can't stop digging,

and unearthing the intentions

—unknown, even, to so many of their inventors—

and exposing them

to the lamp-light of the cemetery

in the 11th hour

rampaging

they storm the gates

of the temple

and kick over the tables

of the money-changers,

calling on the masters

to bite down on their bills

and lead the charge

into battle

they declare emancipation

from street corners

and pulpits of dirt

showing

displaying

naming the unconscious truth of it

and regurgitating it, ceaselessly,

into the clean mouths of the living

all this

without once

looking over their shoulder

or deviating

from the visions

that compel them

all this

while keeping the company

of the most seemly denizens

from the seediest corners

of hell

and when it comes to it,

as it always will,

they answer with their bodies

wide open and receiving

all the while renouncing

the martyrdom

they see coming,

offering their lives, instead,

as a testament to rascaldom

and an endless devotion

to digging up the bones

of the dead

 
poems & imagesk.w.nicol