by H.T. Reynolds
A mother strokes her daughter’s hair,
carefully avoiding the ventilator tubing,
humming You Are My Sunshine through
tears and mechanical breathing
A boy suckles a cold barrel,
his trembling finger pulls its trigger,
the hammer clicks—a revolver lands
with the thud of his sobbing body—
From flooded swamps of broken levees
or the fire-scoured charcoal ghosts of home,
families join one another among their ruins
with caravans of strangers keeping them alive
He gave us a song to sing together:
if our children live
to see the next century,
what change will they see?
This is our chance—
In the morning,
I plant a seed,
and watch
© H.T. Reynolds
H.T. Reynolds is a teacher and father whose work has appeared in Moonstone Arts Center, The Rising Phoenix Review, Rust & Moth, and his poetry collection, Chatter in the Skull, from BookLeaf Publishing. He holds an M.A. and M.F.A. from Wilkes University, where he was awarded the Beverly Blakeslee Hiscox ’58 Scholarship.
Find out more on his website htreynolds.com.
Share the love and wonder by making sure to respect the copyrights! Everything we publish belongs to the authors. You can share their texts via the official link. If you quote them, please credit them. Supporting creativity starts with respecting those who create, so we thank you in advance for doing your part!