A Retirement
All the good positions have been taken,
and all the bad ones.
They don’t want for recruits.
So be it.
Someone, it is said, has to
clap as the parade goes by.
Somebody has to feed
the notional chickens.
So many flocks. So many breeds.
At Most Whispers
Few talk about the massacre in the capital.
Not the site or the bloodstains, the weather or the hour.
Few estimate the number on either side, or speculate
on the proverbial spark to the proverbial powderkeg,
whether a conscript from the provinces panicking at a blown tire,
a demonstrator breaking ranks— agent provocateur, false flag?—
or fulfillment of a standing order from the corridors of security.
Hardly mentioned are the body counts, the disappearances and trials,
let alone what history will make of the day.
Names and causes abound on walls. Signs and symbols are held aloft.
Still, few talk about the massacre in the capital, or its air of imminence.
J.D. Smith’s seventh poetry collection, The Place That Is Coming to Us, is forthcoming from Broadstone Books. His first fiction collection, Transit, was published in 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Smith lives and works in Washington, DC. Further information and occasional updates are available at www.jdsmithwriter.com.