by Joani Reese
I.
Pockets stuffed with extra ammo, rifled men deconstruct bodies clinging to steel cables. The trapped link arms on truss ledges: black, brown, white sail into air, leaving red Pollack arcs shooting behind.
II.
Lovers whimper between clenched teeth, then jump, as bullets whiz by overhead. Church women crouch in the uptown direction to bat at passing souls, desperate to save a few, but spirits slip like yellow silk through their fingers and the wind from their leaving floats over the cantilevered arch spanning the blazing river.
III.
Smoke from bodies aflame tongues the strung moon; ashes flake their wings as cardinals litter the sky like liquid roses, their trajectory a drunkards' scribble across the fire-haloed clouds.
IV.
The thump of a falling body startles a cur that scares under the spandrel. Nosing the air, he yips from his hinged jaw, smells his own dog denouement in the gathering atoms of night.
V.
The water's breast is lumpy with meat; painted waves flicker an oily rainbow of expanding heat.
VI.
The fearless dead lie coffined beneath earthen slabs of clay while beyond the water, fires wink out, one by one by one, the light fails, and midnight capes fresh corpses sprouting metal petals from their breasts.
VII.
A neon billboard's words flash a riddle over Times Square no tongue will ever solve. A New York Times front page from yesterday tumbles and folds itself around a trembling lamppost.
VIII.
In a hot green room across the river, a red-headed girl flips the pages of a photo album perched atop her nine month belly, a frown on her face. She gazes at photographs collected by those whom she does not yet know have joined the dead. She raises her head and asks the quickening air, where do people go when they don't come back no more?
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Inspired by a visit to NYC in 2012. Of course, it's a complete lie. Thanks for the hospitality, Michael Dickes and Cherise Wolas. Published by Jane Carman in Festival Writer at Illinois State University, August, 2014.
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The poetry of violence. Splendid. *
"liquid roses"
"fire-haloed clouds"
"the spandrel"!
*
Yer the best, Joani, and that's the truth. *
I like how they function both as a unit, on their own and as part of something larger--maybe thematically?*
Powerful images throughout. Good piece. *
mighty good. *
It started out as a beautifully rewritten synopsis of 'The Eagle has Landed', but thankfully went into something much more magical.
Startling, violent, imagery, fitting for our times.*
Thanks all. I appreciate the reads.
* "The water's breast is lumpy with meat" One word: damn!
A poet's encyclopedia in eight volumes. You never do trivial, do you? *
I try, James, but my mind's not right. Thanks.
Vivid and fearless. *
wow! This squashed me flat, Joani! *
"Pockets stuffed with extra ammo"
damn right
Thanks, Beate. Hi Bud xo.
If I make another and unsolicited comment, maybe that will push this up to the top where it belongs. If it doesn't, somebody else oughtta fave it.
Didn't sound like a lie to me. More like a slight obfuscation.*
Thank you, James. I don't hang out in these parts much anymore, so the faving stuff is of little consequence to me. I do appreciate it when someone I admire as much as I do you takes the time to read and comment twice. Wow. Thanks to Larry, too. It's just an exaggeration of the nightly news, yes?
"Church women crouch in the uptown direction to bat at passing souls…"
Thanks Steve. Yes, those church ladies don't give up easily ;)
Amazing, provacotive and startling imagery. "*"
Thanks, Kyle. That is gratifying because I think your work is grand.