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enjoy this writing from John Sweet in the free 2015 chapbook: a nation of assholes with guns (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2015 6" x 9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book! Click on the book cover spread to order a nation of assholes with guns as a book at any time!

past and present

John Sweet

Someone in another room, dead or listening,
and your father on the floor where they
found him, back against the stove, cold cigarette
in an ashtray on the counter.

You tell the story or you listen to it,
and it has nothing to do with you.

you turn to the woman, a stranger’s wife,
and you run your hand up the soft curve of
her stomach and then back down,
and then the phone rings.

We pretend no one’s home.

A doorknob rattles, then footsteps in the
driveway, and I can’t remember whether or
not I locked the back door.

I creep upstairs to tell me son that
it’s okay, but his room is empty. Isn’t
where I remember it being.

Only boxes here, and sunlight cutting
through dust, and a stack of books on an
unused kitchen chair.

Only someone else’s past.

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