John Sweet

MAN WITH A GUN OPENS FIRE

and you'll tell me that beauty
is the most important thing and
i'll say that i agree and
what we'll really be talking about
is money

all the dogs will
want to do is eat

it happens this way
every time

a war and then dancing

language and then famine

and i remember lennon's glasses
smeared with his blood
and i never returned linda's last call

heard from her sister that
she had died
and then five years later it was
my father's turn

the taste of salt as i
lay down in the street and
stared at the sky

the buzz of fluorescent lights
when i found you on the
fourth floor

whatever i said sounding
nothing like love

John Sweet lives in Endicott, New York.