From “American Accessory”

an american accessory in many hands

bee ’eldǫǫh [hollow barrel—a gun]

da ‘dindi [clouds explode in thunder]

‘indaa’ [people and the white of the eyes]

k ‘aa [the hollow bullet]

łitu [red fluid siphons]

dił [blood]

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”—Bill of Rights, 2nd Amendment.

i. a preamble

down a long dark barrel numb they uncivilly succumb

evident inside a blood-streaming anthem crescendo

choruses through young tongues a lockjaw—stock


an overture shakes a bag of long gray dust on tresses and skins

layers upon withering cries of a nonfictional hypoxia

on and on they turn their backs a disastrous explosion

nods long into luminous night catching their eye in a dud

inertial paths colliding against calcium and jolting coma

zero centers pinpoint target thought to miss a hair trigger

everyone will feel and notice the helical wound upon her

beneath her sojourning soil and infernal funeral pyres

untying a festering infection rendering her skin yellow—

let this warn all who take hold of these volatile triggers

let this be a warning to all men who do not fear to lose

eagle as emblem calls to justice but bears no arm

to a bent lip

a surge of buckshot seeps metallic sludge and targets zero

ammunition borehole who knew

neither heaven nor hell absolves them from slowing time

death hears no sound like a still humming breath

gangrenous is the object of an untimely momentum

and using the opportunity to cut a life short and valuable

now in these tithing times we share in this cavernous pain

stealing upon the stillness wavering are we—wrought

—of stone and fire

—of bow and arrow

—of weapon and ammunition

—of colonial insurgency