Pre-Empty-ive

Published in

Divided by Zero

2 min readApr 23, 2015

NaPoWriMo, Day 23

They were struck first,
for they were
stacked dark dreams
like matchsticks awaiting fire.
And what are knaves good for?
Give them staves.

We were shiny jackknives,
sharp and bright
like all young things should,
polished à la mode,
but only for the dance.

But we were too bright,
and only wearing neon warrants, it seemed,
because sharp is always put away,
and knaves only get alibis lost in translation,
and stakes after.

The jackboot jury votes guilty, your honor.
When next can we pre-empty these chiggers?

So perhaps it’s violet
the youth love to wear this week.
We know how they only love the dance.
We hope they’re not warped in the APB:
young men in violent.
Because police scanners
think that we,
sown by them
in blood,
must sprout bearing fruits
with grenade pips loosed,
and why wouldn’t they?

So watch where you throw your ball, kid.
People die. Some people die.
They only see dracones,
Young men in violent.

They were struck first,
for they were
stacked dark dreams
like matchsticks awaiting fire.
Why did they die?
Why wouldn’t they?

Image Attribution: By Amal Y from Toronto…where else, Canada ([1] Uploaded by Skeezix1000) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pre-Empty-ive

Written by tolu Oloruntoba