JERRY #2

Sasha Fletcher

war poem

And so to better get to know war we decided to turn off the lights and invite it in.

We came out of the darkness and into the light into some place we’d never before seen and once we got seen well that was just that.

The sound of a bullet is a lot like spitting which is a thought that might enter your head right before the bullet itself does and as it leaves it takes with it the silly little thought about spit and you do, spit, right then and there.

The guy next to me has exploded and I cannot see for the bodies and the buildings and I know enough to hide but each time I try there is a little bit less to hide behind.

The guy next to me now just had his leg shot not off but right through and it’s still hanging and kicking in the wind and he keeps screaming and crying out and it is a calling home to mama that not even the wind or the bullets or the waves of the sea or of the radio will carry back to her not once not ever.

And the other guy next to me had the same thing happen to his stomach which was a busted up boarded broken window straight to his insides and I just about emptied all I had inside all over myself when I saw his heart beat blood in time each time he talked to God.

bones and what they can do

They can walk on out of your mouth and dance real slow. They can exist inside of you. They can be taken apart and made useful in new and different ways. They can be broken. They can be set on fire. They can be used in a soup. They can be placed in a hole in the ground. The hole can be dug with a shovel near the tree. They can be tied to clouds with rope as a means of dealing with the weather. They can be made into a kind of bird. Most things can be made into a kind of bird. They can be wrapped in sheets. They can be drowned in a flood. They can bend. They can climb on each other’s arms and make a sort of tree, each limb going higher and higher. They can be made into a sort of rope. They can be used for decoration. They can be hung from trees as a note or warning. They can be adequate to good dance instructors. They can be set on fire without burning. Their heads can be used as lanterns in times of trouble or darkness.