Underneath this school, where rotted doors open
into crawlspace, frozen tornadoes of cobwebs,
the soft earth of foxholes, of waiting under this
wet sheen of ceiling raining leaks.
This place is nothing for the ex-navy seal,
the plumber who staggers ahead of me
past cracked glass, shrapnel of pipe
and work’s aftermath.
How many years of us are killed
down holes like these? Quiet as the hill
the Vietnam vet forklift driver in delivery
stood on. That night, I couldn’t see a thing
He said, Just kept shooting till the noises stopped.
Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in and is forthcoming in a number of publications including, Chiron Review, The City Paper, Fourth River, Signal Mountain Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press, 2015). His first full length collection of poems, “Black Angels” is currently available from Six Gallery Press, and his most recent collection. “Fountain” is now available at Main Street Rag Press.