I fell in love with Death
The day I grew flowers
In the arid shadows
of his graveyard under
the blood red flesh of the
pomegranate tree there.
death
Mercy for the Reaper
I met him on the corner of Second and Main
One afternoon, walking home from nowhere.
He stood so still, I tried not to stare.
Benjamin Knight, military sniper, code-name Reaper.
In his voice I heard dark rooms filled with secret deserts
And the sound of bones breaking from
The mercenary desolation of subsisting.
But in his eyes I saw the shadows, darker than any nightmare,
Splinter around the dreams he keeps locked away.
Death’s First Day: in (an almost) sestina
It was the first time I killed a man.
Just shortly after 2 am.
Three people passed by unawares.
The fourth called an ambulance.
After five minutes of chest compressions
He was declared dead six minutes before.
*
A little while later six detectives convened
a solitary meeting to discuss possible suspects.
The five who made the list were interrogated
Eternal
2100
Since I last took a sip
And drowned
In the river
A few millimeters deep
That ran down your face
When I answered,
“Til death.”
642 Poems and More 