Schottelkotte

All our goodnights sound like matches striking.
Goodnight, grenade—little knock in the murk, little

pill in the palm. Put us to sleep
while we sleep. One B leads to another:

Boom. The footage fumes. Once
upon a time there was a suicide. Once upon a time

there was an affair & a missile, a mis-
understanding, an intervention, a B-

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb—
Keep mouthing after the newscaster moves on.

                                                                                Ka-
Boom: a fourteen-year-old girl married a bomb.






From Hemming the Water (Four Way Books, 2013). All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.