El Guiso

"El Guiso" according to a show I watched on the history channel is means used by a Mexican gang to dispose of enemies or defectors. The person is put into a 55 gallon drum and set on fire - usually they are dead when this happens, sometimes they are not.

Burning from the inside                                 outside

into the flames and out of the fire,

once charred and remained, there is nothing left to fear

                            not even fear itself,

death a welcome ending to the engulfing of limb, eyes popping and hair singing.

 

55 gallons drum- drum-drumming

full of gasoline and                   a body;

         250 pounds of flesh equaling 8 hours of retribution

         for wrongs and humiliation,

 

only 4 hours for that minor slip of a woman - that human currency trafficked like drugs across borders from member to member no more valuable than a tissue used to wipe masturbatory excesses from callused fingers.

 

disintegration by acid, animals chewing and tearing,

ripping limb and settling scores,

the toll keeps rising like the ashes                        in the air                     

                                    blowing in the wind -

 

catch it if you can … the breath of humanity, left to ash to ash

                            - the breaking of a mere link in the chain.

Reviews

[Pax Analog]

Wow!

Extremely vivid modular holocaustal look at man's inhumanity. . .

The way you dropped "blowing in the wind" in there, is like Dylan folkie-protest being turned inside-out by Rage Against the Machine set at vol. level 11.

There was "Time in a Bottle" -- you've written "Hell in a Barrel" -- infernally excellent work!