gesture of violence
john sweet
i find you somewhere between a gesture of affection and a gesture of violence
drunk on
a bleachwhite afternoon
driving west while a man who believes in the flag and his country sets fire to a trailer
waits to see who runs out
shoots them dead then himself
and this casual destruction is what i think about when i tell you i love you
your eyes soft against the grey poetry of pitted asphalt and collapsing buildings
your voice
a splintered bone in your
throat
these words lost in the vacuum we've created between us
