Robert Lee Brewer

 

 

(USA)

 

 

 

on a hilltop outside sderot

 

we watch as the rockets strike

                    & cheer on our padded chairs

popping popcorn & thinking

                    better them than us & we

know what comes around will go

                    still on this hill a front row

the sun setting we believe

                    we will win when others lose

 

 

 

quid pro quo

 

bullet for a gun

trigger for a finger

father for a son

lose one from a stinger

sadness for a death

revenge for a killing

darkness for a breath

aching & then stilling

an eye for an eye

dollars for dropping bombs

a tooth for a tooth

never stopping

here they come

 

 

 

if i could stop one thing

 

i would start with the bullets racing through your skin

          & then the bombs

the words that escaped your mouth

          the thoughts we shared

that we should’ve kept close to our hearts

if i could stop one thing i would not stop there if i could

          because our hands

should slot into each other & our mouths

          when not kissing should

release all the love concealed in our hearts

i would start with the moment i first tasted your skin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________

 

Bio:

 

Robert Lee Brewer is the author of Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53) and Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community. He’s married to the poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their five little poets. If he could stop one thing, it would be the violence we commit against each other and ourselves.

 

Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer

 

http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.fr/

http://www.robertleebrewer.com/