Monday, July 11, 2022

THE ALPHABET IS NOT ENOUGH

by Miceala Morano


From an experimental alphabet by Max Morin combining real paintings with digital manipulation. In collaboration with Jim Lepage.


We learn, but we never do. 
A as in apple, B as in ball, C as in cat,
D as in the desks we shield soft bodies with. 
Rewind, repeat. A as in active shooter situations.
B as in blood, scarlet staining the halls. 
Rewind, repeat. A as in America, is this 
what you meant by red, white and-
B as in blue lips, C as in CPR. 
I am shielding their bodies in the grocery store, 
in the classroom, in my nightmares each night. 
It is still not enough to protect them. 
C as in clear backpacks. D as in 
don’t make a sound. E as in ending, 
as in breath interrupted. Rewind, repeat
repeat, repeat. A as in active shooter,
F as in freedom, delegated to weapons 
and never to women. We throw our alphabet
at the bullets, B for books, C for chairs, D for desks, 
the classroom deconstructed into a war zone, 
our breaths deconstructed into silence. 
A as in America, never learning. B as in bullets, 
falling like rain.


Miceala Morano is a writer from the Ozarks whose work is published or forthcoming in Berkeley Fiction Review, Eunoia Review, Kissing Dynamite, The Shore, Gone Lawn, and more. Find her on Twitter @micealamorano .