Jeweled Pistols

Jeweled Pistols: Killer in the Classifieds

By Kristin L. Wolfe

Gone it seems

Is the fabric woven from latticed apple pies

or the crisp stripes of our nation’s flag,

or Main Street marches heralding the red, white, and blue.

Oh, and innocent dimpled grins.

Instead, omened in the broad of day

Guns blaze daily like blow pops and fried chicken,

playlists and selfies

Instead, omened in the broad of day

Protests rattle windows, signs wave for the dying.

Swept away, for a moment, by midnight

to make room for tomorrow’s killer, the thief of our nation’s once goodly pulse

News flashes and names drop like old-time ticker tape for soldiers and movie stars

Funerals seem to out-list bliss

and

Tears stain and drench with no living wage

Gone it seems

Is our smile’s soul, where pride thumped and reigned, and we all enlisted

Now ‘Killer’ may be in the classifieds,

Promising jeweled pistols at the highest price.

Here it seems

Within the frayed and faded pursuit of happiness

We ache every day.

And have death in common.