Enter Home Planet News Poetry of Issue #1                        Page 19
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Men Without Faces

Men with guns, in fire fights,
with body armor and without,
firing for effect;
scene of the crimes, marked with
yellow tape, Caucasian chalk circles,
blood stains and hair mats;
evidence everywhere, spent shells,
shattered glass, crack baggies and
pipes;
stolen cars, crotch rockets, ride 'em
as if you stole 'em impact impressions,
exploded plate glass, downed power polls,
trees;
heads behind dirt smeared windows,
see nothing empty of expression
eyes, TV remote muted flat screens,
blood and sand in the street, no sound
necessary;
bodies without faces, road rashed
and fucked up beyond recognition,
cell phone text messages from hell
in cargo pants pockets, first responders
half a continent away;
hours without minutes, clocks without
hands, smell of cordite, of gasoline,
of death;
men without faces and the arms that
they bear.

                            Alan Catlin