you don't know pain
Tammy Kaiser

jungle war desert war
beer is all the same
when you can get it

i built a shrine
because I had to
it wasnt the jesus
id ever known
but it worked
on the nights
I needed it to

the good thing about music
is you can make it
wherever you are

a single light bulb
looks like the sun
if you stare at it
long enough

walker runner hiker
what does it matter
you've got feet

a campfire never
smells the same
once human flesh has
burned your nostrils

you don't know claustrophobia

water drops from a leaf
like blood
from a fingertip

When you're in shock
you can still try
to put your guts back in

CP

Tammy Kaiser is a mother of three, Holocaust and WWII Victim's Tracer for the American Red Cross and survivor of a workplace shooting. Kaiser is author of Godwrestling, published by Brandeis University. She is a graduate of the University of Washington Writers' Program and hails from a long line of survivors.