New Year

With things almost ending/But not quite ending /Nothing seems to end /Through the white noise of last week’s dream /The relatives come /An eager spirit haunts us /Like a pornographic treatise from the 18th century / We feel old /And Babble incoherently / Snow falls /It is December 26th 2008   /A pink headless corpse with two bright blue eyeballs watches our every move /At the mall  /A limousine makes a wide ox cart turn /With nowhere to park /The driver slowly circumambulates the lot /An hour later he is still there /In the car /On the way back from shopping /A female reporter tells the usual story of a recent natural disaster /Figures and numbers /7.8; 7.9; 1976; 1989; 9000, 250,000; 70,000 /The curious part of the story is that the Chinese Decided to make the place into a park /And tourism is predicted to go up by 25% /At around this time /A fat baby grabs a plastic toy off the tree /Dogs throw up grandmas’ fudge /Anxious step-moms step out for a cigarette /At one point you stand at the mirror /Thinking somewhere else /And then notice the equable look /Of a cheap plastic Buddha