Gunner & Beast Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

Gunner & Beast



Stosh awoke early with a hangover.
He usually slept in until the sun was high overhead.
He looked out -
the hot eye of heaven peering down at the shack
in the sage brush -
dusty fields and a stream angling southwest
toward town.

(we phasanidue live in the shrubs and weeds bordering
the silver shimmer
our leader bigred watches over the flock
like our father above guards us all
we live and flourish by his word)

Stosh lived to drink and to hunt.
He swore by the feathers of ring-neck pheasants
and ruffed grouse which he consumed
in season and out of season.

((twolegged whiteskins live in hovels around us
we elude most of them but not all
they bombard us when the frost settles on the grass
bigred prepares defenses
this year something new))

Stosh lived in the shack
his father had left him
after his accidental death
while hunting the fields north of the creek.

(((hens and littles gather by the silver shimmer
bigred has us assemble in ragged ranks
along the clackclack road
when god'seye overhead)))

Stosh left the shack at noon,
a doublebarrel twelve gauge cradled in his arms.
He staggered down to the road
by the railway that led to town.

FARMER FOUND SLAIN IN FIELD -
Stanley Urbanicz,34, of Clark County,
was found in field
near the railroad tracks.
Body eviscerated and half consumed.
Coroner plans inquest.

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