I.
a statue of a dead confederate soldier
looms over the city
community signatures
on the broken cast of a thin tree
the resounding message in red
marker: LOVE WINS
(if love is a gun smoking heavenward
and if love bodies slumped in pews)
II.
a fellow wanderer asks me to photograph him
in front of the scene
he smiles
then takes his iPhone
back
among the strangers
III.
I was a Catholic boy
lost
my way as a man
yet in presence of steeple
and jagged and mighty
tragedy
arrows of prayer quiver inside me
then anger
at tourists and cameras
I know I’m part of
this exhibitionism problem
we’re a crowd of resounding bells
waiting for the next funeral to begin
(originally published in The Magnolia Review, Summer 2018)