Kristen de Kline #34 - #not normal

#The visitor again
Hoovered up into the Morgue Mansion
Running With Scissors Six Feet Under Cuckoo's Nest 
That story leaches out like fucking-milk-spilt-on-the-shagpile:
I couldn't believe it, my brother says,
there was a visitor in the house
six and a half years later, not counting
somebody had got beyond the front door
       and would you like a cup of tea? she said
       another piece of cake?

cheese and crackers after dinner sponge cakes cups of tea
that's what the-normal-people-did, we were told
they watched the All Blacks on their new colour TVs
they went to the Santa Parade New Years Day Races took picnics at Lake's Entrance
but the weirdest thing was what the normal people did when people visited
no glimpsing them  through vertical blinds: sssssshhhhhh, statue game...
no cues from Lucy Jordan: she let the phone doorbell keep ringing
but the weirdest thing we were told, the people were invited in
offered wine and cheese
served  on crystal glasses, silver service platters
handed out linen serviettes
native birds winging across them
one sat on a wire, another was missing a wing

it shadows you around
#not normal
hard to bury beneath the plastic sheets manila folders crime scene photos in the filing cabinets
government officials smell it first, they always know
#not normal follows you into stakeholders meetings
stay focused look professional smile for the camera: say cheeeeese....
you jot down a date name question mark exclamation mark on your clipboard
above your head suspended from a very high ceiling a Mexican lampshade made out of Corona bottles
electrified neon tubes flicker intermittently (a faulty globe?)
the glass bottles dangle tenuously

someone had lost their head, was it you
thrashing old Jam vinyls: pockets full of pretty green dreaming about Monday
pumping out the Velvet Underground: rushing on a run, feeling just like Jesus' son
she'd smelt me out back on Day One
nothing personal, she said,  initializing the termination papers
you didn't use the watermark draft CONFIDENTIAL nothing personal
nothing personal the right font size the correct shade
#not normal follows you from the stakeholders meeting
down three sets of escalators at Parliament Station
the two Big Issue sellers
one platform to whereverthefuckyoulivethesedays
you look at your clipboard
plastered across the names dates question marks exclamation marks,
wiry highly-caffeinated writing in bold capitals:
THE LAMPSHADE IS BLOODY AMAZING!!!!!!!