Buckshot is hard on the palate as it leaves muzzle doing 1200 feet per second
it is no
easier on back wall of nasal cavity
on soft matter of brain
on skull cap exiting
not even on lamp shade, couch, drywall, 2x4 and siding finally
coming to rest
staining red blood white bone black nothing crushing two baby girls ex wife mom
dad brother a hundred people friends
I never knew you had
The spray settles
the fragments, splotches, chunks, scattered pieces
on us who remain
We see them and we marvel with revulsion that you, so pure, would stain us this way
Unsure if we should clean up the mess of beautiful you, unsure if we can
cleanse each
other or only ourselves, all we can do is let the clear you inside us seep out
slowly over
time to bleach away these sins.
November 16, 2000
Howell
[For my friend Eric Bohn,
12/6/65-11/12/00]
Copyright © 2004 Vince Cavasin. All rights reserved.