Poems into Guns

by Rick Lupert

I’d like to load poems into

all the guns instead of

the death they usually put in there.

Let the words clog up the

inner workings. Let a stanza

wrap itself around the trigger.

Let a dozen traditional haiku

take residence in the barrel.

I’d like to load poems into all the guns

and then still never fire them.

Let them linger in there

until the metal rusts it all away

and all that’s left is living people

and words.

From the PDF ebook Poems into Guns, Van Nuys, California: Ain't Got No Press, 2018.