six

tableau: otto dix, self-portrait as mars, 1915

i returned to our astoria poetry workshop taught by laura anne brooks tonight and wrote the following as my first exercise of the year, using the number "6". evidament, je suis inondé par des pensées d'afghanistan...

six ducks

six goblets

six slugs of eau de vie

i'm dropping tears

like an iron-clad knight

on the battlefield

six drunks

six young'uns

six drummers drummin'

i'm proud of

who i've become

in the movies

the sixth part of me

bends with the celluloid text

i'm cut up in the editing

six tricky fingers

six civilians

six dead children

crowds of afghans

push their way

into the future

my own gang
lunges over the hill

and drops their rifles

a general will soon

receive a notice of

unintended slaughter

there will be a

review, a report, and

a trial by jury

no one will go to

jail because

we are all guilty

six positions

six civilians

@ sixty-six bullets

time runs out
the film ends

i am antihero

six black holes

six wounded warriors

six hoops of memory

i sit in my room
trembling and

await the slow crawl

six minutes
six months
sixty-six years