VIEVEE FRANCIS
Gun of Wishes,
of dreams, gun that opens the mind, gun
of rewards held to the temple, gun
of desire, magic gun,
bloodless and free of catastrophe,
no blood exploding from a whorl
of hair and tissue and skull,
gun
that cures, gun of innocence--that’s the gun
for me--one that takes out the enemy
with bullets of care, yes, a cautious gun, gun
of considerations, gun you can carry anywhere
and no one minds your gun of good intentions.
Conscious gun, gun of a gun, gun for you, gun
for me, trigger-happy nation
of guns,
merry guns, guns a-go-go, guns gone
wild, dancing guns like banjoes plucked
hysterical. It’s a scream these guns
we believe in. Savior guns, that will set us right,
godly guns, guns at the fount, clean as a whistle,
hot as chickens in a pot, gun for gun’s sake, guns
as promised for our own protection, hunting guns,
dove-hunting guns, sweet coo of guns, guns
that will fire to war no more, yes, guns for peace,
kumbaya guns, singing guns – like shooting stars –
a lullaby riddling the night.
Vievee Francis is a Texas born, Michigan poet whose first collection of poems, Blue-Tail Fly was published by Wayne State University Press in 2006. In 2009 she received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. Her poems have appeared in several journals and anthologies including Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, and Rattle among others, and are forthcoming, in Working Words: The Literature of Work, Class & Art (Coffee House Press). She is currently the 2009/2010 Poet in Residence for the Alice Lloyd Hall Scholars Program. A Cave Canem Fellow, she is married to poet Matthew Olzmann.