jake st. john | crazy al, where are you buried?

Crazy Al, where are you buried?

I wonder to myself
on this bright afternoon
where do they bury the bums
that everyone knows
by first names


Crazy Al,
everyone greets him
with a smile
and a
“how ya doin pal”


no one asked questions
when he disappeared
just the kids
that could see him
on the streets
through car windows
on their way
to Sunday school


they just kept on moving
assuming
he went someplace else
and finally decided to leave town


is there an invisible cemetery
for all the invisible people
all over the world
to be buried in


do they have funerals
right in front of our eyes
down by the railroad tracks
asking each other
for cigarettes and wine
at the reception


bury me
in an invisible cemetery
with all the faces we don’t see
and all the stories we never heard

0 Replies to “jake st. john | crazy al, where are you buried?”

  1. I’m the poetry editor for Spare Change News and I’d like to use some of Jake st. John’s poetry–especially Crazy Al, Where Are You Buried. Can you send me that one and two others? E-mail me at junkietroll@yahoo.com and put it in an attachment Microsoft Word doc. or in the body of the e-mail. Thanks, Marc

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