The Stranger by Steve Sibra

The Stranger

Second I saw him.
side of the road, I knew.

“I love you”, I said.
As he turned, I struck him,
a mallet breaking excuses.

He folded
                 like a wallet of stars,
my fist a rock inside him –
a punch, a beating,
the call of a second heart.

We lay down together,
side of the road –
brotherhood,
strangest of battles.

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Steve Sibra grew up in a small farming community in eastern Montana. He is a 1980 graduate of the University of Montana and has been a writer most of his life, first published in 1974. His work has recently appeared in Chiron Review, Dead Skunk Magazine, Flint Hills Review, and others. Steve resides in Seattle.

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