Chad Parenteau
Shots Fired
July fourth
preempts
middle of street.
No warning
no right
but what is made.
Believe fire
works just
don’t shout it.
Street audience
holds lottery
to be collateral.
This is how
government works
just localized.
United nihilists
go out together
fight to light match.
Editor’s Note: By June 30, 323 people had died in Chicago violence, and officials said the city was on course to top 700 homicides for a second consecutive year, a level of violence not seen in two decades. Over a violent Independence Day holiday weekend (Friday, June 30 through Wednesday, July 4), 102 people were shot, at least 15 of whom died from their wounds.
Chad Parenteau is the author of Patron Emeritus (FootHills Publishing, 2013). His work has appeared in Off the Coast, Ibbetson Street, Tell-Tale Inklings and Wilderness House Literary Review. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine.
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