Cracked Symbols

the cracked string-bead spaghetti throng swirls bedazzled
bedraggled and comically wretched
a mournful shimmer around cartoon candles
huddling in the gloaming gloom
unragged and healthy
the hum of the crayon-prayer-faithful numb
their pagan-bling makeshift memorial
an installation art totem
as delicate as graffiti sold on the shopping channel
bottles of vodka nestle with silver spoons and opened cartons of cigarettes
and suffocating garage forecourt flowers clinging for dear life
inside their unopened cling-film shallow grave
attached felt tip fly-tipped post-it-sentiments
words you are so mist
words YOU'RE NOT DEAD YOU'RE A STAR!!
words xxx Luv Lucy
words we mourn your loss 4u etc
from across the road she circles her own mind for a clue to theirs
as this dead girl sings of rehab from a tinny mobile phone speaker
rendering her soundwaves disembodied
her sonic angel feathers crash land a last bow r.i.p cashback
as Rapunzul's saturn return death dances
into her vaporised tower of ringtone sorrow
bemused walking away she muses
- oh the irony
they're offering up as symbols of devotion the very paraphernalia that killed her
- what a way to go and what a way to be remembered
then she makes the sign
as she nervously touches her pendant
of the cross