I don’t like knowing
that there’s a YouTube
channel out there for
gun-nuts called “The Warrior Poets”.

I’ve looked at some the videos.
None of them have anything to do
with poetry.

I guess that’s okay,
but,
I still don’t have to like it,
so I don’t.

It does give me a reason
to write down the fact that
I believe that I,
in fact,
am a warrior-poet.

My friends are too.
John, Hans, Larry, Kristopher,
and Josh…

We’re a gang.

We’re a conclave,
a klatch of bare-knuckle
sophists, street-wise surgeons
of verse drunk on our own power.

Beautiful bruises,
pooled blood,
split-lipped
ripped pages
broken pens
shattered lenses.

We’re the dogs of war.

*
-JBClaywell
© P&Z Publications 2019