façades

false fronts 

                                                                                                                      

                    a sleek black silk tie  unadorned

by either insignia or design sprawled  doubled up on itself like a snake and laid at the middle

of a patched paved alleyway running behind a row of bungalows that were once

happy homes in a neighborhood

                              

and now had been repurposed to house attorneys  their partnerships   and Privilege

he stood over it

and turned it with the toe of his shoe as one might poke a dead animal crushed in the

street

a morbid curiosity

  

although  in his head   it arose like a distant aroma

that maybe                                                                                                                             

                    he held out that just maybe

it belonged to a lawyer

twisted one too many times by the cavalier system he abetted  and by which he lived

or who may have been cheated yet again by cohorts or clients

                                                                                                    and said  --   Fuck it

yanking out its slick length through his buttondown collar around his neck

                                                                                                                    Im done  Ive had it

Done   with the mean shystering  the manipulation  strategies and plotting

the Xaminations   and crossXaminations

                                                                  Done   spinning intricate webs to snare and capture

a witnesss slight error or petty lie   and then inflate it  suggesting possibly that they were

untrue  in regards to other matters and testimony    perhaps perilous matters

slivers of doubt

Done   not representing what was true or right or wrong  bucking morality   having the ethereal

Art of Negotiation

Im done

the possibility enticed him

 

the slippery black silk on the toe of his shoe

it really did

but trying the scenario on for size

he balked

privately confessed to himself

  

the only way he could approve of a fine soiled tie was if              

                                                                                              it was thrown up into a tree

over a stout branch and a hangmans was knotted around the neck of a black faced

bulging eyed asphyxiated attorney

  

who hung from it

Someone please   come and take down this miserable façade

1640,  Monday,  17  11. 14

2253,  Day-Between-Two-Ts,  19  11. 14 

an odd phrase fell into his eyes

                                                   from somewhere

exactly where he couldnt say 

nor could he run through his memory backwards to find from where it came

those kind of wheres

were typically lost

trickled away

feeding  the roots and capillaries buried deep in his sentient being

                                                      

itd be like trying to recall the slant  the attitudes or postures his shadow cast at any

shy  given moment

“he flies on two nails”

                                     he also couldnt say if he had ever heard a more apt description

of Christ nailed on the Cross

Christ seemed to him a long  lean  albatross

a man grimacing beneath a knot of thorns 

a crown horribly yanked down on his head over the tops of his ears                                                                                                                                  

dark runlets of blood in his face  on his shoulders and chest

Crucified  singlehandedly He kept him from Church

as a boy he looked around himself   and took in all the worshippers seated in the blonde

wood pews

it was  as it was  during a wake

the deceased at the head of the room

and once those who visited   briefly took to their knees to affirm the prostrate presence

once they had acknowledged the dead

then everyone seemed unsaddled of whatever it was that had brought them 

                                                                                                                  and neer again

did they have to pay attention or lay another eye on that still distant form

he recognised  it was the same at Church

everyone busy and oblivious under His vacant stare

it seemed to him only he and the very youngest children worried themselves with

His tortured posture  grievous face

 

His leering

they made uncomfortable looks and silent exchanges at one another

over the strict backs of the pews or up and down their rows

while their parents la di da la di daed  and chittered

until falling silent as the ceremony began

the priest and devotees flowing up the center aisle  commanding the room  its Reverence

ordained

they seemed consumed by their very part in the Drama

appeared myopic 

                          

and very very small

but even they did not fix their eyes to the tilted leering Christ at their head

solemnly  they committed their functions as parents silently quieted small fidgeting feet

and legs   and threatened

the entire room he imagined   felt threatened

as if the sacred pallor of the Church like yellow smoke wont to grow thicker and darker

and suffocate Its disciples and casual adherents

although if the fidgeting feet and legs were given their heads and way they would have risen
and fled the Church  and the Terror mounted above the altar

like some horrible taxidermy

like the biggest fish ever taken from the lake beyond the few barroom windows and talk

and bragging

a scroll fixed with two nails beneath its belly
like the scroll fixed above His head     INRI *

boasting

              Beat that

                                                                                                                     Thursday,  13  11. 14

 1439,  Twosday,  18  11. 14

* Latin: IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM  Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews