An imitation of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
I.
Among twenty high school classrooms,
The only moving thing
Was the trigger of the firearm.
II.
I was of three minds
Like a safe
In which there are three firearms.
III.
The firearm kicked in the autumn woods.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV.
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a firearm
Are one.
V.
I do not know which to fear,
The weight of the firearm
Or the size of the bullet,
The boom of the shot
Or just after.
VI.
Shells filled the long window
With defensive glass
The shadow of the firearm
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII.
Oh thin men of the city,
Why do you imagine collection?
Do you not see how the firearms
Lay at the feet
Of the people you love?
VIII.
I know ammunition
And aim and concentration;
But I know, too,
That the firearm is involved
In what I know.
IX.
When the firearms flew out of sight,
It marked the beginning
Of revolution.
X.
With the sound of firearms
Mixing in concert light
Even those packing
Would cry out sharply.
XI.
He pulled over Khalil
In a sirened car
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of a hairbrush
For a firearm.
XII.
The firearm is firing.
People must be dying.
XIII.
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The firearm sat
By the cabin door.