IMAGINARY VIOLENCE:

Happens on the radio? Only on the radio? A thing for selling

newspapers? Today is calm, quiet, sluggish start waking on

sofas under skies threatening snow. The earth gets

tight, draws in like a face sucking sour up a straw.

Ribbons hang limp, fields of sticks to scare birds off empty

fields. Even the wind has left town. Rock salt piled along the

road, snow shovels in the boot, extra clothes for the long

walk home – cars parked zig-zag in ditches. Schools closed,

cities like towns, towns like villages & villages like cities.

Migrating populations marooned on dormitories estates built

for more temperate climbs. Everything on hold except community,

The luxury of violence makes way for the preservation of life.

(K)