Confessions

The first juror to elaborate an opinion
surprised us. He was the youngest.
He admitted to a juvenile police record.
He said he had run with a bad crowd,
“and I can tell you, that that is not
how you toss a trailer. They came in
through the unlocked door, into the kitchen,
and there was the whiskey and the shotgun
and the microwave and the pistol.
They would have taken all of that stuff,
not just the pistol. They would not
have shot someone who was already
passed out. They would not have
twinked around with personalized
costume jewelry. Who wants to go to jail
for a granny bracelet?”

They really don’t know why she fell asleep;
they only knew that she might never wake.
Her parents prayed and prayed their child to keep,
and so she lived, but not just for their sake. . .

Michael T. Soper has been a typesetter, a printing systems manager, and an editorial branch chief. He has written six previous books of poetry and prose. He is co-translator of 21st Century Chinese Poetry.