Maybe it’s time for you to go
………… suggests the manager in a voice so level
it’s obviously an order. He’s staring
at a man he should never have hired
……………….. in the first place.
Maybe, now you’ll listen to us,
say the children whose father just set fire
to the kitchen, cooking supper
for his dead wife. Now you’ll let us find some place
safe for you.
………………… Maybe, answers the father.
Maybe you should step aside,
…………… repeats the cop.
Maybe, says the elderly woman as she stands in the road,
………….. arms folded,
while the first of the trucks starts toward her.
It’s got a power plant to build, more
important things to do than jam on its brakes.
Maybe you’ll be good enough to stop
screaming,
…………………………. says the man
as he clamps one hand over the woman’s mouth
while the other fumbles with her zipper.
Perhaps this isn’t such a good idea,
maybe it’s not too late to let her go and run.
Maybe I’ll get out of this alive,
thinks the woman,
………………….. maybe I won’t
No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes,
a friend pounds her fist on the table.
Dump the flowers in the trash
and start packing before he gets home with more
promises.
………………………… Perhaps, the woman says.
Possibly.
It’s what the child says on the ice
as he steps onto it.
It’s what the ice says as it cracks under his boots.
Perchance, says the wind as it tears into the trees,
………………………… this time
I’ll let you off with a warning.
Maybe, the heroin pleads,
it’ll the different this time.
Maybe, the blood says at it makes its deliveries.
by Christopher Bursk
from The First Inhabitants of Arcadia
University of Arkansas Press, 2006