by Nikita
Bestiary with Bullets
“what rough beast, its hour come round at last
slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
-W.B. Yeats
Darkness is slinking, slouching towards our beastly hands,
so eagerly cupped to capture a drink. A
drowning bed. A temple of rust. We are descendants
of dust. We can swallow centuries of injustice, but
not our pride. All should be incinerated, but the
landscape sleeps bountifully barren of proper
kindling. Indecisive rolling stones gather moss &
burn ineffectual pyres. Bones fertilize the soil while
we wait, sinking in our own muddied excuses.
Ravens assemble in the front yard to plot a coup
d’état, but reluctant armies fall without generals.
Still, the court rules in your favor. Even broken
clocks wish for movement—left wanting. Disbelief
lurks underground, under civilization. Funereal
meditation, merely marinating vitriol, rotting from
within. A strange fog engulfs the city. The aroma of
complicity. The bitter taste of truth stymies your
tongue, catches in your throat. How pedantic we
become in self- righteous anger—our fathers wrote
the book. Washing clean our sins, sorry is an
afterthought. Fingers firmly in our ears, ignorance as
osmosis, as oxygen. Falsehoods dangle distractions,
shiny, abhorrent objects—hate an opiate for the
masses. Pupils blown in rectitude, we lack the will to
fight. A gun with no bullet makes no impact.
V.C. Myers is an Appalachian poet, the author of Give the Bard a Tetanus Shot (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2019), and a Contributing Editor of Barren Magazine. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and featured in exhibits and journals worldwide, including Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and The Minnesota Review. Her website is vcmyers.com.
Nikita is a 25 year old living in St. Louis City, MO. He started painting seriously in March of 2018 and paints for the joy of his self. From a range of minimalism to abstract, to a bit more concrete, Nikita wishes to paint what he perceives with his diagnosed schizoaffective mind. He wishes that his art will blast inspiration into the hearts and minds of the viewers.