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Take That

by Elizabeth Shaw

aka Silver Bullet in the Woods

Life is at best a muscle with its skin peeled back
pulsating like chewy spaghetti
we dab and dab
spin our forks
our vines to their woods
windward as the cornucopia in the tom-tom of fruits ebb and swell,

Aware that something is amiss
only when we smell and taste and feel its steel resistance
threaten the nerve as the hood that safeguards it
draws blood in a gutteral yowl
we can't fathom another drop
perforate the tongue with its barbell*
that the rest of our lives is ripple.

As the piercing look of armed guards
follows me around like a conscience I failed to pack;
In my knapsack
I drink the wine slow and steady
pause only when the quiver of an arrowhead
backwashes its tines to the jugular
rattling the worm from its sediment like a call to arms
ta-tomtomtomtomtomtomtomtom;

I swallow gag reflex
a winged serpent with the bat in my eye
and a heart beat I remember all too well
timid and Canadian made;

Dust off lead crystal
shedding red tears for maple
slice open another
bottle of Crown Royal
balling the foil to its capsule and sling,

"Take that"
passport
anything you want
my mouth
playing dumdum.

* could be werewolf ...

02/03/2013

Author's Note: Originally bullets were made of metal, stone, or clay balls. Lead sling bullets were found in Athens
with a winged thunderbolt engraved on one side and the inscription "Take that" on the other side. 4th century BC.
Silver bullets were used as weapons against werewolves in folklore.

Milan Milisic had his passport revoked in 1985 for anticommunist writing. After his passport was
returned, he travelled as a poet in residence at NY University and Amherst College.

FGM is practiced in 28 countries (primarily Africa and parts of the Middle East);
100-140 million women and girls have experienced the procedure worldwide.
The entire population of Canada is only 35 million.
. In 2012, the United Nations unanimously passed a resolution banning its practise. Will it happen?

Posted on 02/03/2013
Copyright © 2024 Elizabeth Shaw

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by George Hoerner on 02/03/13 at 08:59 PM

I never cease to be amazed at what people can do to one another.

Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 07/04/14 at 01:50 PM

what a great opening line, it is powerful enough to echo touche! and if that opening line wasn't enough of a salvo to sink a ship, comes the second and equally marvelous stanza and it amazes me that we dare take another drop of this life, save we reap the poetry in it which makes it worthwhile. I file this under adages to live by - your odes make life utterly worthwhile.

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