Revolution #9

by Howie Good

The queen swallows poison from the silver thimble around her neck. The king, though, trusts that the executioner’s aim with the ax will be true. Only the old remain weeping behind closed shutters. Reports of miracles arrive from throughout the kingdom: love suicides returned to life, God’s preemptive voice heard in the crackle of flames. Before the royal library burned, there was a place to sleep. Now the secret police know who the insomniacs are, and the insomniacs themselves just how interminable the night is.

6S

Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of six poetry chapbooks, including the e-book Police and Questions (Right Hand Pointing, 2008), available free here. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology.