Issue > Poetry
Write
I was fixin' my meal
and I heard six gunshots.
It was six-twenty-nine.
I know it was six-twenty-nine
because for some reason
I had to write it down
and so I wrote it down.
Six-twenty-nine. It was six-
forty when I heard the sirens
and I said I hope
nobody has lost her child.
There I was and I was
still preparing my meal
and I thought when did I
become this de-sensitized
to hear that and just go on
doing what I was doing.
That's when I wrote that down.
It was six-forty when I started
hearing the sirens and I was
still standing at the stove
and I just wrote it down,
I wrote that down, I wrote,
"I continued to prepare my meal."