In Praise of Us




We are the winners, you and I,
traveling dirt roads that lead to junkyards,
hurling the thermometer into the crocodile's mouth.

Always, their voices have been behind and before us,
that we have not walked by the tape measure
or turned our songs to science.

They gave us maps and exiled us,
laughed when we arrived at dry waterholes,
shook their heads as we ran with cheetahs.

But you and I,
we live in the center of the web,
feasting on our heartaches,
turning stone to water, icicles to lava;
using crosses as kindling.

We stand in the fusillade,
refusing to camouflage ourselves.
Every bullet swallowed turns to gold in our bowels.

John Amen's poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in various publications, including Poetry Bay Magazine, The Adirondack Review, The Melic Review, among others. Amen has toured extensively as a performing musician, both as a solo act and with a band, and has released three full-length recordings, Wild but Willing, Eat Mine, and Four Forty Four. He is editor in chief of the online literary bimonthly The Pedestal Magazine. 
E-mail: jamen32499@aol.com


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