gun rack, shooting butterflies

by markk

Posted to Action Poetry on 2001-12-29 10:21:00

when i was ten years old
i got a gun rack for christmas
a place to display my play
toys, plastic winchester rifles,
army bolt-action single shot
jobs, i’m not sure how i
began at that place, with that
shoot-at-them mentality, no doubt
the influence of tv westerns,
the vietnam war live on the
evening news, to this place, where
i wouldn’t touch a gun if you aimed
one at me. but oddly enough, i still
have that gun rack i got on that
long-ago christmas day, that wooden
gun rack with fake plastic bull horns
on it. it hangs on the wall in the
garage. i don’t own any guns, toys
or otherwise, but shovels i use
for planting, a hatchet i use for
chopping wood, these things look
great on that gun rack, shooting
butterflies at the bottom of stars


(markk is madtolive@hotmail.com & www. deepcleveland.com)