In memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti
There are those who cast their burning
anger into bullets. I see them
fire, then turn away
without washing the body
of the beloved, without kneeling
to kiss each wound.
Without ever tending to the words
burning their own bodily hollows.
Renee and Alex, I cannot
pull those enflamed words
out of your bodies
and heal you back
to how beautiful you were.
I can only try
to cleanse the words that fester,
that fly from my own mouth.
And yet I must say—
may the lull and linger
of these words
churn the sleep of all
who speak with bullets.
.
John Bradley
Picture Rupert Loydell
.