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Tell Me Everything

by Paul Ilechko

Tell me everything you know about the orange sky     the way the mass of cloud hangs low at sunset     and the way that colors blend and ebb into spectacle

tell me everything you know about the green at the heart of nature     the rain sodden humidity that drips and soaks     the sweating acres of jungle growth that twist and propagate

tell me everything you know about the fearful masses escaping   the clabbered  density of smoke     the unbreathable air   that settles beneath an orange sky     that is filled with the deafening roar of guns and bombs that rattle doors and shatter glass

tell me everything you know about starvation     about the bone-thin bodies of children with countable ribs     and the hungry dogs that hover at the outskirts of sickness-riddled camps      with their fields of shallow graves that sink into the mud of nature

tell me again about the joy of pageantry     as a parade marches by     in color and sound and the blare of martial music     and the crowd chanting his name     as the leader raises his fist and his followers cheer and call for more     and more     and more of the same

tell me everything you know about the way in which this world will end

Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks “Bartok in Winter” (Flutter Press) and “Graph of Life” (Finishing Line Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Juxtaprose, As It Ought To Be, Cathexis Northwest Press, Inklette and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.

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