by Howie Good
Listen for directions from authorized personnel,
which hopeless thoughts to avoid,
how long to wait for the destroying angels to tire
and the broken buildings to stop burning.
Remain inside the train if possible,
but if not, open the side door and go out,
and love witches’ gloves, dead men’s bells, bloody
fingers,
love reflective surfaces shaking with truculent colors,
love this country, my country,
dark green and torn where the light once touched it.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of five poetry chapbooks, Death of the Frog Prince (2004), Heartland (2007), and Apocalypse Mambo (forthcoming) from FootHills Publishing, Strangers & Angels (2007) from Scintillating Publications, and the e-book, Police & Questions (forthcoming) from Right Hand Pointing.
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