Classic Poem

Łodz I"ve been there done that the vanished children
Klezmer makes glad music at Lazarus gate
If as straggling voices the dead return now
They have our number

Breathing hard we wrestled asbestos brake-pads
Luminously radioactive watches
Fizzled green plaque riding elastic wrist-bands
Glue smelt of peardrops

Someone those taut days was predicting biros
Not my blubbered Jewish pal bright a bully
That we knew klezmer I much doubt the Wedding
Dance for the Old Men

Time released me from him as I could not have
Many then had foresight but I was not one
Vital spinners counting there"s no subtraction
Ever can oust them

Odds are for pittance where redemption strands us
Debts of those long-dead sparks of phantom brain cells:
Who"s to dance broyges tants the dance of anger"s
Conciliation?

There is no known voice but a clarinet sounds
Almost human touting a melt to die for
Hurl of things fastbound the last-known survivors"
Wailed diminution