Crystal Night

He looked like a cardboard Romeo
when they threw him on the slab
all buttoned up with brilliantine
the comb before the dance

no one knew his name
but they waged he could cut a rug
as they paraded his wallet and gold teeth
around the bier Kellers for a laugh

they smashed the glass to bedlam
in the distance the fires ached
rhythms stopping as if second hands
the stories of the undone