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| Illustration by Tony Calabro |
The world is on fire
so fire back
Fire before fire can be declared
Fire before anyone can shout fire
whether the building is crowded
or otherwise
Shout fire, fire, fire
in the hole
Fore!
Man down
Woman down
Child down
down child down
Who else is left down?
You know who
is cowering in the bathtub
fearful of a stray
bullet in the brain
Wayne saw John
Wayne or The Baptist
Showed him The Way
Fear, Love
the world becomes
a scary place
Wayne at night
his family in harm’s way
he prays for them
prays for us
pray we understand why
why guns save
not shatter
lives of a feather
collapse us with shards
a million little pieces of shrapnel
Wayne, god
can’t you see
the rest of us shot thru
bleeding out
Mark Danowsky is a poet / writer from Philadelphia and author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press, 2018). He’s Managing Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal.