Fire Pit Season
.
A squirrel considers a nut,
then opts for a softer acorn,
carries it up a Nordic pine.
.
The bunnies vacationing
in the woodpile return
to their underground den.
.
Twin foxes on patrol
circle the yard a second time.
.
Deer approach the dogwood trees
to sample the meaty red berries.
.
Buzzards coast rings overhead
as an injured groundhog
takes shelter beneath a foundation.
.
Neighborhood dogs consult one another,
their barking echoing
off the remaining foliage.
.
Browning leaves shower,
gently freckling the paling green yard.
.
Crows caw in the branches,
while geese migrate arrowheads above.
.
Cooler weather announces itself
as a returning guest on our threshold,
ushered in to warm itself by the fire.
.
Hammer
.
The children are kept
in a concrete room—
svelte, hungry, bony—
lined up at the center.
.
A uniform paces behind them,
sledgehammer in hand.
.
The kids stand wide-eyed,
no more than nine or ten,
waiting, wondering.
.
When the hammer cracks
the first boy’s skull
he doesn’t comprehend.
.
Eyes bulge; not pain
so much as shock.
.
The others don’t turn to look
but they hear. They know.
.
No time to think about escape
or to figure out what is transpiring.
.
One by one, whack by whack,
blood spurts as the hammer comes again.
.
Once to the ribs,
then to the face,
again to the back of the head.
.
Slain, their bloodied faces still plead.
.
Concentrate on why
hideous things happen
every day, still today.
.
Driving from comfortable office
to cozy home
in heated-seat car,
.
contemplating which book
to slide from shelf for fireside
whether to dine in or out,
to sip brandy or whiskey,
.
it hits:
no wonder it’s so hard to concentrate
on why these atrocities happen—
there’s a bloody sledgehammer in my hands.
.
Eric D. Goodman lives in Maryland, where during the pandemic, spent a portion of his hermithood writing poetry. He’s author of Wrecks and Ruins (Loyola University’s Apprentice House Press, 2022) The Color of Jadeite (Apprentice House, 2020), Setting the Family Free (Apprentice House, 2019), Womb: a novel in utero (Merge Publishing, 2017) Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus Books, 2011), and Flightless Goose, (Writers Lair Books, 2008). Visit his website: www.EricDGoodman.com. (Photo credit: Nataliya A. Goodman)
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North of Oxford 