The Rips

By Jackie Kerns

Ten thousand piercing explosions
Seem to blow open my head
While bells echo through
my ears
And ricochet off every bend in my head
The clamor rises
Countless “thuds” are heard
Across the plain
That lies open like a tomb under pounding feet

I cringe
My hands fly to my ears
While I try
To escape this nightmare before me

And All goes quiet

Not a single twig complains to its crusher
Nor does a squeak emerge from a man’s mouth
Nothing moves
Nothing speaks
I press harder against the sand fortress around me

The only sound that can be heard
Is the sand that shifts
And hisses at me as I
Burrow deeper into the mound

Then Once more the terrible noise assaults my ears
A “thud” follows swiftly
As the man next to me falls and becomes a shadow
While warm, crimson liquid spills onto his uniform

I look up from
Where I crouch and
The last memory of my
Past life echoes through my head

A single line
My favorite line
From a single song
My favorite song
Came true
“…as bullets rip the sky…”
Quote from the song Vertigo by U2