The Literary Review
ukraine
no shakespeare sonata
worth this
horror: evolution the major error
better the invertebrates
devouring one another
in dark deep fathoms,
no winged victory
bombs raining down
via polluted star-crushed
sky
7.1.22: addenda
dunno
who i am anymore
slipping thru edges of
fear on to
a new shelf
will the ledge
hold or will i fling and falter
catapulting spinning
into the image released
from the james webb space telescope
the stars & galaxies of the SMACS 0723
some more than 13 billion years old,
just after the big bang, the invention
of light
one of those things
the glorious girl in the sexy glorious
to the waist fitted cleavage glimmering
red gossamer dress celebrating her class prom
in the grey brick ruins of their school in kharkiv ukraine,
caressing the folds of her dress, face to the camera,
aware of the moment, the theatre the backdrop
the shattered windows & walls,
dead kids, soldiers, civilians, old people, young volunteers,
moms crossing a bridge w/children, defenders captured
& shot, tending your garden on your knees,
murdered by the russian invading army
but
not
an 18 year old, not a 15 year old,
with an assault rifle, an AK-47, a child
slaughtering fellow children
miles from his own home
as ella is now singing,
just one of those things
shooter still not found
today, 6/30/22 wld have been
my mother’s 105th b’day, my first year
in high school, M & A, we moved up
(literally: up the hill) & metaphorically,
up-scale building (by bronx standards),
from 1170 sherman to 185 mcclellan,
cner of sheridan, where anthonly laster, age 33,
in the lobby of 1221 sheridan,
got shot to death by his girlfriend’s brother
on 12/17/21.
shooter still not found.