May 14 Gaza Border
Evil is incremental
One bullet after another
And after another
And after another
Until there’s a blister
On my trigger finger
Where there used to be a wet print
Of a little kiss
Transplanted to my little girl’s cheek
Before I left for work
This morning,
She’s sound asleep in bed
With the spring birds singing
Through her window.
All day
I do
The best I can
To shoot low,
To spare the gut,
To leave the heart within its chest,
I merely shred knee caps and groins
With shrapnel
From the cannon in my hand,
To buckle those distant shapes
Of brown people,
To see them writhe in the dirt
On their asses,
Legs and arms pumping into the air
Like half-squished spiders
On top of a table,
Hauled away in spoonfulls of wheelbarrows
My God
My God
Please stop
This prophecy
Of slingshots
And firebombing kites.
I know most of my bullets
Have slipped into the gaseous abyss
With their own orders
And less discipline
Into a handshake of fate
Until I reckon
With the end of time
I am doing this
Me
All day
At work
Shooting
Across a field
Over a fence erected by men
Because this is heaven, and that is hell
And they all want in,
Millions of them,
Wanting to kill me
And my little girl
Asleep in her bed.
I’ve never heard or seen
Of anything
More irrelevant
Than having a choice.
Did I say that, or did they?
We all follow our orders.
Copyright © Robert Trezise Jr. | Year Posted 2018
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