How can you feel relief about something
you still don’t understand?
John Gacy
When speech serves the uncivilized mind
notice how the tongue’s pink shovel
conducts the choir in a midnight dirge
as violent verbs leave trenches in the
crawlspace of a sad suburban brain.
For many, his picture was the last thing they saw
standing beside First Lady Rosalyn Carter
as the gods of deception calmed the crowd
with the lie you can go home later.
But no one had the memory of leaving.
Their hearts were at rest
For many, his picture was the last thing they saw
the beating could not be heard.
in a place so dark
Part of me wants to believe that
if one man’s sermon of terror
preached by a father’s drunken fists
could have found a church in me,
maybe the town of Norward Park
would have had more faces to paint,
maybe the dirt beneath his nails
could have been a gift from the roses.
About the Author
Daniel Edward Moore lives in Washington on Whidbey Island. His work has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, North American Review and more.
His work is forthcoming in The Meadow, New Plains Review, Steam Ticket Journal and New Limestone Review. His book, “Waxing the Dents,” is from Brick Road Poetry Press
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