February 9, 2015Love Poem
In this episode a terrorist cell will spread
a biological agent through the water supply
unless we can stop them. In this episode
you wear your hair down. You wear all black
leather. You carry an assault rifle very tenderly,
cradled in the crook of your arm. In this episode
we parachute from 100,000 feet. We fall
for an entire commercial break. We have good
aim and endless 5.56×45 mm cartridges.
Even though the terrorists wear masks, to us
it’s clear that they’re all variations on my mother:
trigger-happy and erratic, surprised by our intel.
And just before the rogue scientists synthesize
the virus, we burst into the secret lab. You cradle
your rifle like a rifle. You have a beautiful
tappet. No one sees what’s coming next, a twist:
the smoke clears, a hyperbolic needle buried
in my neck. The plunger looks very plastic,
like the stock of your rifle. The audience can’t
believe it. I die in this episode. No, they sob,
as the virus eats my eyeballs. Run, they scream,
as you sprint away from the explosions. What
will she do now? they wonder, as you chopper
away, as the credits flash and pop on their screens.
from #45 - Fall 2014