The Glad Cadaver


his box of tricks put away
he sulked beneath us
with tight lipped defiance
he showed the family up,

after all they had let him down
on frayed ropes in rough hands
undertakers fingers blessed by
nicotine & long shot betting slips,

his fox gone to ground he waited
for the family pack to wander off
towards the ' Horse and Hounds'
then slowly he began to burrow,

down into sticky cemetery clay
gravity pulling him from his bones
until each particle at last escaped
the nagging mouths of relationship.


John G.Hall(C)2005