Justin Karcher

This work is part of TAG: A Poeta Project. It is a response to Blinds by Kristen Brandt

“Tuesday June 2^nd – A response to Kristen Brandt”

A sudden hailstorm

and the cars parked on the street are obliterated

all that’s left are the tailpipes

the ghosts of our friends come by and scoop them up

they stuff them with flavored tobacco

and lazily smoke under some trees in the one parkway

that isn’t surrounded by police in riot gear

no difference between the haunted

and the hunted

it’s the same level of exhaustion

one long road with every kind of obstacle

the songs that make us cry and shout

Buffalo is not quiet tonight

military helicopters circling over neighborhoods

and the sounds of surgery

protesters cutting open their chests

and inserting police scanners right next to their hearts

so their blood will always flow

toward the places that need it most

the city smells like burning

but every sunrise is built

on the backs of angelic arsonists

plumes of smoke shaped like bicycles

weaving in and out of traffic

when I think about revolution

I think about hingeless honeycomb

sugar pouring out of a wound

kids who grew up in claustrophobic ashtrays

defying the odds and becoming fireworks in the sky

when oxygen molecules get excited

they will eventually produce light

don’t look away

guard them with your life

By Justin Karcher