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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Poems for People Who Don't Like Poetry #2

Who brings a drum to a funeral?
Who tells dirty jokes?
Who laughs so hard that Diet Pepsi geysers out of her nose?
Who brings a drum to a funeral?

Who uses the bacon grease to make fry bread and apple pie? 
Who uses dynamite to dig a grave in the frozen ground? 
Who brings a drum to a funeral? 
Let this goodbye be Coyote's wet dream. 
The only shaman is the shaman of ice cream. 

In his coffin, our father is cold to the touch.
He is dead, dead, dead. There is nothing to touch.
His skin is no longer skin.
His eyes are no longer eyes.
His bones are no longer bones.
He is a fossilized hive.
If I picked him up, I could shake him like a gourd rattle.

Let this goodbye be a death scream.
The only shaman is the shaman of ice cream. 

-Sherman Alexie

2 comments:

  1. I've seen Sherman Alexie speak live. I have always liked his style. This poem is great and I'm thankful you shared it. Oh to be the shaman of ice cream.

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  2. I don't know him, but now I want to read more. This was oddly comforting.

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