WARGAMES
I’m too astonished
At how still the knife’s tip is
That pain doesn’t register.
Copper bb’s blaze
Through the trees cutting
Perfect circles through fresh leaves.
My brother gently pushes the bb out
Through the entry hole in my
Knuckle with the knife tip.
I pick it up from the dirt,
Eyeing it, turning it round
Before loading it into my gun.
He slaps me on the back,
Reminds me, The life of man
Upon earth is warfare.
We’re pinned down,
The rusted fire barrel tinks
Hollowly every other second.
I’m the better shot.
My brother covers me,
And I stand and squeeze the trigger,
Hitting the new kid
In the corner
Of his eye.
He yells stop,
And so we all yell stop,
And we all go to look.
The ball bulges under
Bloody skin, quarter inch
From his watering eye.
Hold still, my brother says,
And we all gather
Over the new kid
As he lies on leaves,
Staring astonished
At my brother’s steady knife.
*
Spencer K.M. Brown is an award-winning poet and novelist from the foothills of North Carolina where he lives with his wife and three sons. His work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines. His debut collection of poems, “The Salvation of Me”, will be published by Press 53 in Fall 2026.
