Poem: Peacekeeper

By Jack Brummet

1
The hawk on a high wall
Is hardened in wickedness

2
A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper

3
A bad beginning can be overcome,
But a good end lasts forever
---o0o---

[2008, revised 2009. This originally appeared in the little magazine Shorts]

Poem: surviving

Surviving
by Jack Brummet

Salvation lies
In remaining unblinded

To the treachery
Massing around you:

The enemy without,
Calculating your fall

And the traitor within,
Beating in your chest.
---o0o---

Poem: A Second Chance

[As I work through this manuscript, The King Begins To Falter, I am, naturally, reworking or tossing out the poems that don't work. Expect many more over the next couple of months. In addition to rewriting many, I also need to delete about 120 pages of poems.]


Second Chance
by Jack Brummet

We cannot really lose
What belongs to us,

Even when we throw it away.
The gathering winds

Blowing through her heart, reverberate
In the echo chamber of regret.
---o0o---