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Gunboy

Beth Bachmann

January 7, 2015

killing

the child said

became like drinking water

clean

or clean enough

though one says that one is part of everything

there is a conflict there is a resistance involved

this for that

that life for this

a finger to the lips

or to the trigger

the revolver is vulgar

in the boy’s hands

decorated with beads

the weapon turns over like a word on the tongue

bella bellum

the war of all against all

the beauty of all against all

to emerge from emergency form

out of force equal to

all those bodies bathed in that free water

Beth Bachmann


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