Balfie Is Dead

CARNAGE WROUGHT BY A DISHONEST HORSE TRADER        671017

By JC STREET © 2004 all rights reserved


Balfie is dead, dead
at twenty-five
minutes pas’t
eleven on the eve

                                 OF

his birthday
his                          

                                 twenty-seventh it

would have been
died
crying obscene
needle hanging
festering maw
abscess-hole speak

                                  to

black weed soft
grey felt
men
on street corners  

                                  “Hey son; c’mere!”

died clutching my
hand skin
pale gaunt
grey wax cheeks hollow
gibbering saliva
through black teeth
nails
untrimmed Balfie

is dead

                                   he

buried

                                    me

--30--  Montreal, October 17, 1967 – how we change