Picture Day
       

Now let's see
that shuttered motel

behind your eyes.
Vacancy still pulsing

neon red into night.
Absolute night. Yes,

the kind that hurts
like a dragged cross,

like the promise
a country you have

traveled so far to
love rescinds.

Now hold that pose,
your chin so heavy

it ruptures your chest.
Carry the empty

weight of words
creased in your brow.

Follow the light of this
new dawn down

the barrel of a gun.
Any wound will do

as long as you keep it
open. Remember

where you come from
& the dead in your lungs.

Like rail tracks made
obsolete by a highway,

thistle & crabgrass
overcoming a field.

Like a bell with no rope
to ring it. Yes, smile

just like that. Say this
is now your home.

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Copyright © 2020 John Sibley Williams All rights reserved
from Boulevard
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission