We can't hear the radio

--W. Todd Kaneko

Listen to this song on the radio

about a girl who loves a boy

who is not in love with anyone,

both of them full of dirty twang

and cheap wine. A few frequencies

down the dial, there is a news report

about bullets flying at night clubs,

at strip malls, at public schools,

all those people all at once singing

for their lives. Listen to the sirens

wail for the hospital, the funeral

for the names of the newly ruined,

all of them wishing for a return

to silence. Somewhere in the world

there is a bullet careening towards

the chest of a boy who doesn’t know

the difference between moving

his body and falling in love

with a girl because they listen

to bright songs that don’t care

if anyone is listening, but just locate

the quickest way to a person’s heart

when the world is going to shit.

Tonight, we would give anything

to discover a brand new song

dedicated to us on the radio,

anything to lose the bullets

in the static forever, anything at all.