O' Keefe's Slide

fingerbells in a house fire
on a neck tuned to fourths

a long-ago Christmas
wakes at midnight
shifty on a bar stool
as a cat reeling on ice

too fast too fast
the bells swell out
tearing the Atlantic fabric
thin bones busting through
the night swoons
yellow-orange
lamplight though beer
pumpkin teeth this O'Keefe
-- his fingers
wresting a stiff neck
watching it slide, slide

into the Morning Star
.
.
.