3 A.M.
Deep inside the Texas night
a window shatters.
A thief — burglar,
or rapist —
intrudes a leg into our home,
booted foot
grits down on broken glass.
“Dad!”
I whisper-shout.
“Dad! Someone’s breaking in!”
“Jesus Christ, Christophah”
he replies,
his voice cocked at its New Hampshire angle
“I’m a bunch’a ashes
in a jah
in Illinois.”
In life,
he was no help either.
I grab my pig spear
that stands bedside guard,
slide one naked foot free of the bedroom,
then another,
as I move quietly
toward the creak on the stairs.
©2024 Christopher Jones All rights reserved.
Christopher Jones founded Lost Prophet Press in 1992 and published the literary magazines Thin Coyote and Knuckle Merchant: the Journal of Naked Literary Aggression for many years. His most recent books are the poetry collection Swamp Yankee: A Book of Verse, and Exploding Fellinis: Chronically Distrubed Tales, a collection of stories co-written with Kelly Green. After many years of dire servitude in the Southwest, he now lives with his family in West Saint Paul, Minnesota.