the golden dog

or lives controlled by

need and not desire


end of summer and the
                  idea of fear
too large to be ignored

gun held tight in the

fist of christ

taste of gravel and of

              broken glass

cold blue sky over empty parking lots,

over the clean, meaningless lines
                             of gas stations

over the corpses of children

killed by chemical warfare, because
the world is always so much
more than your own small,
                      petty failures

the kingdom of ashes

begins at your door

the missing man is found two weeks

later on some weed-choked
stretch of riverbank
almost eighty miles away

his wife is with her boyfriend

when the news
makes its way back home

even now

the possibilities for joy
                   are endless