Tonight, once more sorting
           that cluttered mess across my office

desk—stacks of manuscripts,
           empty envelopes—I find myself

searching for a forgotten
           receipt, trying to organize pieces

of my life, when suddenly I
           spot some bold headline for a story

on the war, and I'm looking
           over the three-week-old cover

of a news magazine carrying
           a photograph with four soldiers

at the front, one wounded,
           each peering into the distance

as if still seeking a source
           for far-off gunfire only they hear,

staring out at a target farther
           than their arms can reach, toward

a place beyond this picture's
           frame, where we will never see.

Volume 2, Issue 1, 2007