Postcards
by Tara L. Carnes
it’s the postcards that make me connect
with the photograph
of the woman lying on the ground
surrounded by postcards
I take lousy pictures so
everywhere I travel I buy a few postcards
to help me remember
every day new pictures of random violence
are on the news
shootings
stabbings
bombings
terrible things that happen in other cities
other countries
this woman buying postcards
blindsided by hatred driving
a speeding car
it could have been me
which postcards had she chosen
from the rack on the bridge
the Union Jack, the Palace of Westminster
the one with L O N D O N spread out in big block letters
or the ones smeared in her blood
as she lies vulnerable on the sidewalk
surrounded by shaken tourists
witness to it all
a trip they will never forget
The Poeming Pigeon: In The News, The Poetry Box, 2018, p. 167.