Theories of Violence

                                          too much of our blood is pleading
            alternate refuge for submerge
                                                                        which is muscle unknit
                        a whole other person without prop

 

                                                most of the body is empty
an unwilling lock
                                                            every doorway capable of closure
                              every bone capable of rupture

 

                                                                       a person is a collocation of strikes
            not of mercies
                        mercies reflected in broken glass
                                                            are by definition wingless

 

a missing wing reveals the anchor
                        two wings loosed from their bark
                                                                                    form a confessional

 

                        most of the body held together by breath
lifeline, from birth to indivisibility 
                                    once shattered, shattered
                                                                                    remade, a pox
                                                what is there to trawl
            reflection: a salvage
                                                                        birds rush to unpiece collapse
                                                buzzard, vulture
                        the dove, surprisingly
with urn-like wings

Copyright © 2019 by Rodney Gomez. This poem originally appeared in Waxwing, Issue 18. Used with the permission of the author.