Two Hungry Ghosts - Dustin Vado
Two hungry ghosts float down Shattuck
Full of food and noise
Yet still starving
Skinny
Bloated
They are free of the reins of love
And drift past a curb where a man is selling jewelry
To anyone vain enough to want copper cookware
And burn butter on pennies
The ghosts pay no regard
And hover on
In search of a plain wall
To watch their backs
“Here - do this”
One ghost offers a solution to the other,
Contrary to the one offered a day before
Whiter than smoke, a ladder that promises
Nothing except the stench of wandering tomorrow
And another day of feet reaching for the ground
Nothing can outweigh why
When clawing for blood stained cement,
The way that orange lights burn
Wonder to the fingers
And brilliance out of minds
Smelling of burning hair and tobacco
“What a life.”
A ghost pushes a sigh through his exposed ribs
Indeed
One ghost looks half dead
The other with a finger fresh out of the socket
Both melting
Into the wall behind them
And still
Nothing outweighs why
Full of food and noise
Yet still starving
Skinny
Bloated
They are free of the reins of love
And drift past a curb where a man is selling jewelry
To anyone vain enough to want copper cookware
And burn butter on pennies
The ghosts pay no regard
And hover on
In search of a plain wall
To watch their backs
“Here - do this”
One ghost offers a solution to the other,
Contrary to the one offered a day before
Whiter than smoke, a ladder that promises
Nothing except the stench of wandering tomorrow
And another day of feet reaching for the ground
Hex waves of flickering matches
And stumbling blackouts
Wash past blindly
Nothing can outweigh why
When clawing for blood stained cement,
The way that orange lights burn
Wonder to the fingers
And brilliance out of minds
Smelling of burning hair and tobacco
The arc breaking sodium vapor
Disguises the need for sleep
Exposing streets dense with buoyant company
“What a life.”
A ghost pushes a sigh through his exposed ribs
Indeed
One ghost looks half dead
The other with a finger fresh out of the socket
Both melting
Into the wall behind them
And still
Nothing outweighs why
They make no sound except
Music that didn’t exist last year,
Another moment closer to the clouds
Stranded with lost balloons