“Distant Gunfire”
By Gabrielle Faust ©2025
Should I be disturbed
That I no longer flinch,
Recoil
At the sound of gunfire
In my neighborhood?
Can I renovate this life
As if I were an old house?
Would those distant noises
Reverberate with
A renewed sense of urgency
And fear
If my foundation was repaired,
Stripped of the
Termite-infested floorboards,
Warped and stained
With what might be blood?
These walls were built
With wood scavenged
From shipwrecks and
Homesteads ripped asunder
By tornadoes and fires.
Is the vibration of this
Shell of self irreparably
Sutured to the devastation
Of what came before?
And are distant gunshots,
Cacophonous sounds
That simply hold
No meaning anymore?
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