they walked the streets of Buckhead
through the sinister fluorescent indifference
of a nightmare carnival
their guide, Charon
an Irish Australian who had drunk so much bourbon
he carried his head under his arm
led them over disintegrating cobblestones
through the sexist chaos
and couldn't decide which circle of hell to guide his ferryboat to
scary women bared at them
their lipstickstreaked fangs
beneath the neon tapestries
the bartender nodded
and poured three level pints of warm blood
from a tap of bone
when Scott lit his cigarette
Dirk recoiled, hissing at the light of the struckmatch
drawing his cape across his chalkwhite countenance
William's eyelashes drooped
and his eyes were slivers
as he glared evilly at the undergraduate folksinger
Charon bumped the table
Glasses shattered and beer splashed across
Dirk who howled in a lupine baritone, goatee and fangs
Dirk Frank Frank Dirk one
Werewolfula Fradirk Difrank Dracuwolf
several throats much flesh for draining of glow
acolytes came crashing through
windows, skins drained pale, arms extended
Weredirk, subversive and obstreperous, devilishly eloquent, turned
and then with a wave of his arm,
Charon led them in a wake
down the drunken street
to the dance bar
where an undulating beat
twists the ghouls
a gigantic peppershaker
ground William to powder
in front of skeletons spinning discs
who grinned hiphop toothless
as ragged bandits stole eyeballs from the jar
Charon reenacted dreams he did not remember:
an imagined surfing experience
upon a glowing floor
among denizens of the Atlanta night
suddenly surrounded by buzzing yellowjackets
and bristling bulldogs riffing suddenly Charon
is set up by the Weredracdirk, all tooth and hair
burnlikeafallenember says Charon as
Vampirkwere falls stake through chest oh
Frankendracweredirk says, now I am surfing
yeah right baby you are melting into
an
aqueous sea of righteous something in Melbourne
and we always say interface tasmanianlikewell
Dirk is oozing pitch
melting into
the floor
but
with
spirit.