·
2 min read
Слушать

Backdrop addresses cowboy

Starspangled cowboy

sauntering out of the almost-

silly West, on your face

a porcelain grin,

tugging a papier-mâché cactus

on wheels behind you with a string,


you are innocent as a bathtub

full of bullets.


Your righteous eyes, your laconic

trigger-fingers

people the streets with villains:

as you move, the air in front of you

blossoms with targets


and you leave behind you a heroic

trail of desolation:

beer bottles

slaughtered by the side

of the road, bird-

skulls bleaching in the sunset.


I ought to be watching

from behind a cliff or a cardboard storefront

when the shooting starts, hands clasped

in admiration,

but I am elsewhere.


Then what about me


what about the I

confronting you on that border,

you are always trying to cross?


I am the horizon

you ride towards, the thing you can never lasso


I am also what surrounds you:

my brain

scattered with your

tincans, bones, empty shells,

the litter of your invasions.


I am the space you desecrate

as you pass through.

0
0
52
Give Award

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood CC OOnt CH FRSC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental…

Other author posts

Comments
You need to be signed in to write comments

Reading today

Ryfma
Ryfma is a social app for writers and readers. Publish books, stories, fanfics, poems and get paid for your work. The friendly and free way for fans to support your work for the price of a coffee
© 2024 Ryfma. All rights reserved 12+