Mort
lead one to
oh Cèline,
tell us;
to death, right
like everything else,
on the installment plan
or off,
on Plan B
or C
or on no plan at all
just floating along
like a leaf on
the river
the River Styx
or maybe the Hoosic
that ran through my childhood
a pitiful trickle on the floor of
cement retaining walls built
by Army engineers
to hold the Great Flood
should it come again and
wash all disgust out
into the Sea of
Love.
_
*(note: Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Dr. Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouche) wrote DEATH ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN and other works.)
Wayne Burke's work has appeared in FORGE, miller's pond, and Northeast Corridor. He was poet-of-the-month in Bareback, 7-13.
