what is gone is what i see

Not counting my introductory Helping Spoonfuls riff, my first official post is actually a re-microwaved leftover from MySpace.  It is a poem called what is gone is what i see.

-----------------------------

it's something
near fastidiousness,
i think

thinking making
the most out
of nonsense

cut out
candy corn,
salted popcorn
on strings
and other
vices twiddling
their thumbs
on the calendar
grid

greed described
as petulance

these are the masks
of the season

these are the traps
hidden between
the racks of
wholesale goods
and lighted
grocery store aisles

what i am talking about
is not a hallmark
of tradition

it is not a trade
of something
taxed, bartered
or corrupted

it is a sentiment
of acceptance
on behalf
of all

and what makes 
us stronger does not
indeed make it better

what elapses
as time turns out
to be
not time at all

and
it is what we have
substituted for this virile mix
of blood, saliva
and dirt-caked
fingernails that
makes me shiver,
makes me superstitious,

keeps me dry