Death

Death isn't dressed up for halloween
in a long black cape with a scythe.
He comes in the wee hours
on a fire truck, it's engine rumbling,
the siren off.

Tros

Excellent. Did you write this?

Reminds me of Dylan's line about the "last fire truck from Hell".

Just some morbid, 4am thoughts.
Something to cheer you up!
"last fire truck from Hell" doesn't sound familiar. A song?

Something about that last line really works. Perhaps because Off corresponds to death, silence & surprise. And, its a very elegant ending. Damned fine work!

Sort of a haiku about death? Thanks, Slick. It's been a long time since I've written anything. I kind of like the matter-of-fact, simple
language.

>3 tros: A song?

“Shooting Star”

ETA: Add link to lyrics.

Odd - before reading your poem this morning, I was listening to this song on the way work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1135wTjZ_Ec

2, 6 Oh Mercy is on it's way and just in time!
7 You must arrive dazed and crazed!
;-)
I've lost track of Bobby since Blood on the Tracks. He might make it as a poet yet. ;-)

7
I believe Man in the Long Black Coat is on that album as well. You can probably guess what that one's about.

I also like the more recent line, which samples Robert Johnson:

I sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall
Sleep is like a temporary death...

William T. Vollmann's Last Stories and Other Stories:

https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/freaks-geeks

Cabaret du Neant, the Cafe of Death:

http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/2009/10/cabaret-du-neant.html

A great book about how collecting skulls and shrunken heads and such is a fascinating meditation on death:

http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/morbid-curiosities

Happy Day of the Dead everyone!

http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/day-dead

Comedian and "World's Foremost Authority" Irwin Corey RIP:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/arts/irwin-corey-comedian-and-foremost-author...

Now who will Thomas Pynchon have to accept awards on his behalf?

Found The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, subtitled "The way of the samurai is death." Also found Hara-kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide by Jack Seward

It would be fascinating to do a comparative study on the death-fetishism of bushido and the decadent aesthete.

Oh, Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj4aJ8R0k2Y&index=1&list=RDfj4aJ8R0k2Y

Regarding Dylan and the topic of death, I read an interview with him conducted shortly after his excellent album Time Out of Mind was released. The interviewer commented that a lot of reviewers had written the in the album, Dylan was writing about his mortality. Dylan responded, "I love the way they say I'm writing about my mortality, as if they think they're never going to die."

All together now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2IBMQIjDo

"Hell" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers

Good old times... saw them live twice. The second time the subway car on the way back was filled with a largeish group of other concert goers belonging to some "sixties swing" subculture. Felt like time travel.

I remembered seeing the video on MTV on occasion. As if Bob Dobbs directed an episode of the Lawrence Welk Show Compared to the other neo-swing bands of the era, like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer, the Squirrel Nut Zippers seemed delightfully "off."

My review of Exemplary Departures by Gabrielle Wittkop:

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/exemplary-departures

Or, if anyone has seen Barton Fink: "Gabrielle Wittkop. Death. Whaddya need, a roadmap?"