by Howie Good
The world is a rifle butt
smashed in your face,
a panting hand reaching
for your only child.
And now the weather.
What if our hearts weren’t
such paper-thin bags
of blood and vomit,
what if they were shiny,
like the water-bright coats
of prancing red horses.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of three poetry chapbooks, Death of the Frog Prince (2004) and Heartland (2007), both from FootHills Publishing, and Strangers & Angels, forthcoming from Scintillating Publications. He was recently nominated for the second time for a Pushcart Prize.