Full Circle

by MK Punky

At his funeral
they say he came full circle
his life a grand improvisation
swirling past bel canto opera
to Korean hip-hop
making unscheduled stops at unmarked stations
slumming with the dregs and meeting presidents
Forrest Gumping his way to freedom

While alive
they thought him inconsequential
as the ancient slaves who built kingly monuments
one of billions to arrive and go
leaving nothing to remember
in the historical record
except thankless labor for another’s glory

We all shed ambiguous tears
as the priest prattles
remembering how the billionaire’s architecturally significant castle
high on a ridge-line looking down
upon concertgoers at the Hollywood Bowl
tumbled like dice
after some seismic encouragement
sliding calamitously down the hillside
where there was no view at all

Many years later
scavengers picking through the rubble
elbow aside archaeologists
trampling our anonymous friend’s gravesite
now speckled with valuable baubles
strewn like confetti at a wedding
suggesting to learned evaluators
a very important person was once buried here

MK Punky is a co-founder of the 80’s hardcore band The Clitboys and the author of thirteen books of fiction, journalism and memoir. Find more here.