One Year Later
- One Year Later
On June 12, 2016, a deranged 29-year-old security guard killed 49 people and wounded 53 in Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest massacre in America since 9/11/2001.
Time passes Sleep ravels A smile might start: the mind can weasel out of any trap but there's no real healing of the heart
A Sauer automatic can tear apart a face or year pealing like a thunderclapStill time passes sleep ravels smiles can start
She sang each morning He ran our supermart: each memory stings sharper than a slap How can there be a healing of the heart?
Our blood slows thickened by a poisoned dart My bluebird my beau when you nestled by my lap time passed sleep unraveled sly smiles might start
Now time's tipped over like a broken cart that carries nothing forward not a scrap Nothing much to heal in an empty heart
And what of kindness mercy music art? O how we all could dance tango and tap!Time passes Sleep ravels A smile can start …but there's no real healing for a stricken heart [End Page 162]
Peter Meinke is Poet Laureate of Florida. He's had over twenty books published, including eight in the Pitt Poetry Series, most recently Lucky Bones (2014). The University of Tampa Press has published six of his books, including a guide to writing poems, The Shape of Poetry (2012); a collection of his Poet's Notebook essays, Truth & Affection (2013); a children's book, The Elf Poem (2015); and a collection of short stories, The Expert Witness (2016)—all illustrated by his wife, the artist Jeanne Clark Meinke, who also illustrated his latest book, To Start With, Feel Fortunate, a collection of essays which received the 2017 William Meredith Award, published by Poet's Choice Press.
