My darlings,

I owe you a writing assignment.  Clear diction, even sentences.

Instead

I give you loose

Verse

Words spilled together on the floor of my anger 

Over forms I filled out long ago

A victim’s impact statement

Should never just get

Lost,

Flutter to the ground through exploded sky 

Drift down in a mute opera of

Tragedy

Is when the antagonist

Betrays love

That is such a simple thing

You throw a rock through 

A stranger’s window

Draw lines of 

Demarcation between 

What we forgive and what cannot be

Forgiven is such strong 

Drink

In the prayer of a child

There is anger and confusion 

What God? What Prophet?

You look among these spent and bloody stones

I know he is gone, full flight

And we will all

Rise, birds in flight

In this winter-dark sky