Written by Amanda Trout
— After the murder of Renee Nicole Good
Gunshot. Fading body dropped to a floor.
A shot: floor to body dropped, fading gun
gasps against bare chest. Empty fabric breathes
bare breaths. Against fabric, empty chest gasps
fading floor. Gasped breaths, body to a gun
empty against chest fabric: shot, bared, dropped.
Hear the shot-sound ringing out into the sky—
into the shot, the ringing, sky sound. Hear
witness. The poet silent-screams from her page.
From her page, the poets silent-scream witness.
Here, the witness poet shot, screams into the sky
out from the silence, her rage sound ringing.
Underfoot, pressed pain shoots through this body
Pressed through shot body, this pain underfoot.
Catalyst the lurking cause, the fingers on triggers
trigger cause on the catalyst, the lurking fingers
lurking trigger shoots through the catalyzed cause
under pressed pain fingers, on this body, the boot.
Shot shot shot hear the cause ring, catalyze
this body into rage, bared boot-pressed fabric.
A poet gasps witness against the lurking silence,
through fading empty—from body to gun—
the pain floors the sky dropped under chest, triggers
sound, breathes out the scream on her fingers.
.
Amanda Trout is a Midwestern US writer with a love for sound, form, and cicadas. Her work has been featured in Pleiades, Barzakh, Roots and Words by Iron Oak Editions, and other publications. She currently teaches composition and studies poetry at Oklahoma State University. Find Amanda on Instagram @atrout2972.