Spectral Graffiti

Keith Haring, now a bespectacled ghost, sprays ectoplasm diluted with dirty water onto the cold walls of Heaven.

They freeze into grimy ice sculptures of flying saucers, big babies and antic fornicating gay men.

Hell doesn’t consider this art. Demons rise up to destroy his work, melt it down with flame throwers.

But just as the first spark ignites a mud-spattered baby’s rump, a flutter of angels swoops down and banishes the fiends back to their fiery home.

“Why?” yowls one demon. “He’s defacing your Heaven!”

Arms crossed, one angel says smugly, “But God and the American ghosts like it.”

Lorraine Schein has published in Strange Horizons, Scientific American, and the anthologies Wild Women and Tragedy Queens. Her latest book is The Lady Anarchist Cafe, available from Autonomedia and Amazon.