Yours, in particular, have distended gums

that break out into several costumed villains.

I've had enough of mortality. Like liver transplants

and runs in the stockings. Do you remember Cincinnati?

Of course, you don't. You were at that pay phone

for hours. You believed you were dying.

You made me say velociraptor ninety-nine times—

at first slowly then faster—to prove you trusted

me to be there once it's your time to die.

That's the afterlife I've had in mind ever since I tried

to grow floating restaurants on my scabs.

Don't get strange ideas now. I know about your ideas,

like dysentery and duct tape for the aged.

You call them your plastic brontosaurs

with the Modigliani neck as if a different name

could've made a difference to Dr. Guillotin's

humanity project. From the start, not even God

understood what it meant to be extinct.