Kronos

Two old men roll
in the gray mud
wrestling over
possession
of an hourglass.

A grasshopper
eats a grain of rye
balanced on
the same mount
as the scarecrow.

An old truck’s
front end explodes
just as the driver
accelerates
over the crest
of a hill.

The family
in the nearby house
doesn’t race to help
but watches,
from their place
on the porch,
the whole thing burn.

The distant boom
makes the bald old man
turn his head
while he has both hands
around the throat
of the bearded one.

With the choice
before him
to act or die
Mr. Beard decides
to break apart the hourglass,
and bury the largest
shard into Baldy’s neck.

One chokes
on a fountain of blood
the other on the friction
of weak tissue and bone.
The scattered sand
all blows away
mixing with the soil
and the air.