Martyr

*





The leaves burned with holy fire.

We smoldered like saints ascending.

Your dark eyes shamed them all

that day, so long back then.

I'm still trying to touch fire

and be saved,

but it was someone else

that broke your heart.





                        -Brent Allard

Equality Before the Law

*





Let’s go to Nebraska, where no one wants to go.

We could drink whiskey until the lights go out

and stumble into the dirt street mumbling

about salvation.



And after that we could sit in the dark, touching

since we couldn’t see. And I would say your name,

because when you answered, I would see you there

trusting and poor.



Maybe we could start a farm. We would grow

everything that doesn’t need water. We could starve

in our shack, and when the rain finally came

it would pour right through the roof.



We could get bitter. We could curse our friends

and neighbors. We could pick fights with salesmen

passing by. We could blame the government, and

Mr. Purcell at the bank.



Let’s build a fence with splinters so anyone

who touches it gets hurt. Let’s get a dog that

bites us and keep him in the yard in case anyone

thinks to visit.



And after that we could turn to crime. We could

rob anything you can think of, and kill anyone you like

and then throw the money in the street. We wouldn’t

need it because by then they’d be after us.



Maybe we could find an abandoned warehouse

to have the big stand-off. They’d know

we were there. They’d feel it.

We would make a lot of widows,

and orphans too I guess.



I’d kiss you before my blood ran out into the cracked

dry ground, and take as many with me as I could,

because they didn’t know how I love you

and that should cost them something.

 
 
                                 
 
                                                  -Brent Allard