Local Blood/Holy Dead


Illegal paraplegic parcels
Fell off the back of a calico truck
The cancerous rust around the wheel well
Prospered at it traveled with the cursive
Title of "American Nightmare"

The insecure exhaust dredged
Black memories from the
Flounder and blow fish that
Flopped in digression along
The shattered spine of a
Whaling village in-decline.

The Trans-Atlantic travels of
Sailor songs and burnt earth policy
Tourism drained the local blood that
Was born from heroes who were
Once whalers. There was a progression

From Chalices encrusted with blue claw
Blind eyes, brown tide teeth, homesick oars
Saturated with mutinous stories,
Acrobatic mysteries of the barn swallow,
Taxation without representation and a
Slow mutation that carried the local blood
Into the holy dead.

The corn and potato fields fell first, soulless
Speck houses spawned in the nightmares of
Farmers. The Whaler's Church was dismantled
And auctioned off. Scallops died and squandering
Seagulls screamed like grave robbers, perched
Atop wind beaten anchors which decorated
The salty dog burial grounds.

Flesh fell off the bodies of the holy dead reenacting
An April snowfall. No sheltered island was sacred.
Soon the only song that remained for the local blood,
The holy dead was the slow drowning murmur of
Last names that were historic and full of honor.

The long wharf sunset memories
Melted into the belly of the sea,
Throwing drunk red light and fire whistles
Against fishing boat that docked at the buoy
Never to sail again.


That whaling village was as guilty as its
Love for its local blood but waterfront property
Was a vampire.

And finally all the local blood had transformed into
The holy dead with a remission of last name lineage.
The unwanted pilgrimage was born on a sunset highway
Choked pine trees.

A whaling village transformed into a Mecca for jean clad
Slaves who believed in freedom but couldn't pronounce the
Word. Murders of crows surrounded the cornfield
where calico trucks loaded and unload the invaders dream.

The holy dead moved along the land like stoned angels,
Remembering heaven and ignoring hell.