edited by Wolfgang Carstens. exterior by Pablo Vision.

first thing we do

first thing we do let's sit and do nothing
and wait until we die,

drinking beers and watching sports
having opinions about indifferent things,

bored out of our minds –
let's pretend that that's a life

what we find

what we find will be bones
we once were filling the empty
coffin. they will fit us like
gloves do, like nightmares.

we shall dress ourselves
in them again, children again
in the worm's hard school.
we shall cleanse the bone

of the stinking meat simply
by waiting while he nibbles.
after our fleshy process
is complete we are clean

and nothing is waiting, not
for nothing. every song is
unremembered then, and long
since sung. thus we are

done

earth and blood

we are earth and blood,
no soul or heaven or stardust
in us.

and when time comes to rot,
if we before have resented our eternity
lying in the soil,

then may the earth spit us out
as unworthy her. i love my animality
and my animal mortality,

and when the trees, and the loving slugs who dwell
under them, carry the sky like a burden tonight
their burden i willingly share.

i am earth and blood,
and beyond that words and nothing.
there is fire raging instinct and sex in my veins,

it is not painful, nor is any temporary agony
like orgasm or other tortures, all that is humanity,
the short-lived man in me. and i am happy to be here

i shall die some soon tomorrow
i do not care –
just now the worms and i have an earth to share

"The thing that really strikes me about these mostly very short poems is the economy of language McLean employs.  He gets it.  He understands it.  He knows that it doesn't take a very long knife to kill...just a sharp one."  - John Yamrus

"LAUGHING AT FUNERALS is (in my opinion) the very best work by David McLean. this book is gonna open many eyes, silence many critics, and establish McLean as one of the most unique poets of our generation." - Wolfgang Carstens

LAUGHING AT FUNERALS is coming soon from epic rites press.