/merrillcole/

 

makes sidelong

allusion throwing bouquets

to those who get it

catch the exemplary

pain razor-

thin metonyms of injustice

pointing at what happens

to some people in some

cut and cut

off far away places

 

got caught

in a personal syntax of I did

this I did that not implying

I could do anything but re-

member rearrange

the wildflowers all correctly

named with a flourish

 

don’t say Forget-Me-Not

don’t say Gaza

don’t say Baltimore

 

Spoon River Poetry Review 42.1 (Summer 2017): 38.