Pass the Hat

You can leave your change in it if you want
Perhaps you could carefully empty the coins
Put it on and be dragged to the ceiling
The last act is to form an image, an imprint
by which we all pull down from above
to recall, to include you in the proceedings

Perhaps as time wears on the lights that provide
that illumination are wiped free of the grime
the accumulation we think is time but is simply
particles passing through the space we occupy
the wisdom of fickle beginnings does not evolve
through the entire process and prepare you for
the need of it as we unlodge before we escaped

There is a lot of holes in our neighborhood
where they flayed away that night
there are so so many souls missing
it is not funny to think of their bodies
there are no bodies
only the holes they left
they never took them to be fixed
so their unique pattern
means nothing to the process

Pass the hat but not too fast
you can see it training along
crawling along the line
you know it’s coming
and you may never want to wear it