Contact the author: popcultureslut@hotmail.com

Step right up -
And see the dead lady.
The embalmers pulled the strings
Behind the
scenes
dressed her in a cream-coloured blouse and pink blazer,
with gold earrings encrusted with pearls.
Makeup on her face caked on thick,
Creating a map of fine lines:
Italian Renaissance fresco.
Placed by her left arm - her favourite porcelain doll -
still in its box - a coffin -
soon to be buried, too.

Grandmother-
In an oak wood coffin with natural finish
and hand-tailored black velvet interior
(0 to 60 in under four seconds) -
encroached by white lilies, pink carnations,
and orange buttercups; balloons the colours of
ice cream flavours
threaten to stage a coup d'état
and demote the main attraction to a sideshow.
A beat up old cassette recorder plays her
favourite tunes - Patsy Cline's "Crazy" -
A woman wails, mascara running down
Her painted face.

And as I tried to recollect
the memories of those 8-hour trips
to Danbury -
the cluttered kitchen and cups of tea,
the tales of ghosts and haunted houses
as we lay in our beds -
I couldn't help to think that you had passed
through the concrete Prince's Gates:
I half expected you to rise,
observing all this
chaos
and frowning like a clown
denounce this carnival.

© 2007 Aaron Bayley