What I choose to see

For Abbey Clements and Opalina

They are
voices

overexposed
beautiful
coldly vulnerable

They are
blue angels

They are
drift
loose

Two pairs of hooked wires
hang from the branch
She chooses to be hooked
and by the hooks
raised up

And so
        one after another
do they

4 ohio 2 towers 20 children
but not like this

not to the rhythm
a slow metronome
of sledge hammers on oil drums
pacing the muscles
the muscles lifting
lifting up the strange fruit

shame and vengeance
humiliation
hanging is not for hearing
it’s how you own the words
it is about power
and most of all
control

they become those Names
                shame and vengeance
               humiliation
        become their power
        become
and will

4 ohio  2 towers  20 children
it’s not now
        not like this

Contrails over Gotham
ashes ashes
they both fall down

an un-designated London is calling
the strange fruit follows
into the night
to control the wires
awe and shock the monkeys
vengeance

4 ohio  2 towers  20 children
it’s not now
        not like this

Not like
Jeremy speaking in class
Klebold in Columbine
in the name of vengeance

this time an Elementary

4 ohio  2 towers  20 children
it’s not now
        not like this

On the hillside
Smoke blocks the light
ashes ashes came from his mouth
A shot
across the knoll
then shots
north by northwest
ohio 4
all fall down

it’s not now
        not like this