The Last Waltz

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Square up
and dance to the drum beat of knuckles
against stretched dry hip skin
don’t bother to save the last waltz for me.

Let skinless fingers make obscene signs
against a world of dripping flesh
and laugh so hard
that your nose fall off.

Let the drum beat absorb the screams
when bodies’ melt like soapsuds in a washing bowls
full of luck warm babies piss.

Witness how the devil smiles
when he makes jelly out of eyeballs
that he feeds to fiends
till their brains explode in mirth.

Nothing more,
nothing left to do,
the autumn soil will do the rest
as lovers walk on damp soil
and read a tombstone name.