Predicting Violence
For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: we visualize what we will never actually do.Because words equal sword,
—Stephen King
and creative writing essays produce
tragic varsity weenies,
we find violence instead of nice love.
We believe our young are evil
and think: rage, love, ruin you.
Like snipers needing a child,
danger hides in pencils.
We worry about their letters.
She writes to a boy
in the marching band: Hi drummer.
But could it be: murder him?
These words
throw seeds
and art with its slathered howl
heals the world.
And a child’s voice speaks—
avoids cliché, just valid choices
reflecting a devil so chic.
But we don’t listen—our tinseled town
now a wilted sonnet;
we rearrange woman writer
into her own timeworn war.
The love of words should not mean wolf or doves—
by tasting arrows
an artist grows.