Homage to Vonnegut.

Ritterbusch, Dale E.

 Homage to Vonnegut
    A young couple runs across the road,
   hand in hand,
   a gauntlet of gunfire
   behind them; neighbors
   lie in the street, blood washing
   like rain down the gutters
   Married or not, they were lovers,
   you can tell from the still photo
   of them lying in the road, like their neighbors,
   their friends: the sniper, I imagine,
   fired from a pockmarked house, a sidewall
   blown out; he stood at a second story
   window in the shadow of the eaves
   Pink mist is what they're trained for,
   a head shot, one round to the temple,
   but he missed, or had aimed at their bodies:
   whatever mistake it was, she wasn't killed
   and the young man wrapped himself around
   her fallen body, pulling her close
   as if they were in bed on a cool night,
   he warming her chilled arms and legs,
   whispering as he did then
   I love you as the rounds tore
   through them both
   Usually a photograph of a shoe in the rubble,
   a child's doll, a broken watch to pinpoint
   the time, is all we need--a mere suggestion,
   little more than a hint--and that suffices
   We know the story from all
   the shoes, dolls, watches we've seen
   before--nothing left to tell
   But the couple: here we have everything
   and we want more. We ask ourselves
   questions: why were they out in the city streets?
   why didn't they leave at the first signs
   of hell? And what did they wish for--
   a boy or a girl, perhaps a house
   overgrown with lilacs or roses--
   longing as they did for something,
   anything, to make sense:
   etcetera 

A contributing editor to WLA, DALE RITTERBUSCH is the author of two collections of poetry, Lessons Learned and Far From the Temple of Heaven.