THE CULTURAL BOOK OF THE DEAD
— for James Dean
The little bastard speeds into the canon …. An icon
cloned on postage stamps ….On posters
Transfiguration
of a fan-fuelled self-absorption ….A leather
jacket stoned on youth ….brooding
fast-forwarding ….You know
the reaching
for a six-pack, the remote
A script the cause for grief
The dead resurrected ….The rock
that rolls back ….jellybeans
peeps as soft epiphanies
Sideburns as the livery of the saint
A broken neck ….a broken jaw
like Jesus disembodied
hands and feet ….A cross
you stay up late to carbon date
The basket not the eggs
A joy ride
on the revving
curve of some belief
Author’s Bio
KATHLEEN HELLEN is the author of the collection Umberto’s Night (2012), winner of the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra (2010) and Pentimento (forthcoming).