Hecatomb of a Fingernail

hecatomb: (noun); an ancient Greek sacrifice of 100 oxen or cattle


These poems are monuments,
like small heads of cows
drawn in the fog
of bus windows.

A hecatomb
of a fingernail.

It's my job.
I mark
these epics of brevity:
an old man with
two fingers to his face,
a square of paper
on a green bus bench,
meeting a woman's glance
as we look away from others.

These are the rain of
a purposeless courage,
touched now
while we remember
we're dying.



by jerry gordon