FIRE IN THE HOLE Shards by John Bennett Belly of the Beast • Blowing the Lid Off • Dancing the Night Away • Carrying the Message • Energy • The Real Estate of Aging • Fire in the Hole • Pyschic Lebensraum • God as a Pastime • How the World’s Shaping Up • Hitting Bottom • I Go Thru What I Go Thru • I May As Well Tell You • Letter to the I-5 Bushman • I Love a Parade • Need • Not Making Sense • Pat the Point of Polite Conversation • Pyrotechnician of Doom • Right to Life • Sucking • The Sensible Thing To Do • Something About Taxes • Something New At Noon • Something Old, Something New, Something Blue • Starting Over • Talking About What Everyone Is Talking About • The Merry Merry Month of May • The Big Cheese of Code • The Deconstruction Game • The Gravity of Angels • The Old Fast Shuffle • The Sin of Being Unable to Love • Time’s Running Out • Tornado Eyes • Thanks for the Memories • What It Is That We Teach Them • They All Want A Free Lunch • Word Spinner with a Broken Heart • Variable Time Slots • Learning to Speak Spanish • Muffled Soundtracks of Joy • Progress with a Big “P” • Reunions Avalanche from the Sky • Sleeping Crows • Smoke Break • Spooned Spinach • Zen Ping $8.00 US • 48 pages Copyright © 2001 Argonne House Press. ISBN 1-88761-57-2

---

Energy

The energy of a whore. The energy of a maiden. The energy of a wife, a mother, a child.

The energy of a snake. The energy of a lion. The energy of a dwarf. The energy of a robin, a sparrow, a hawk on the wind. The energy of mice. Of gorillas in the tall grass, thumping their kettle-drum chests.

The energy of slaves. The energy of juggernauts. The energy of astronauts, floating weightless in time. The energy of time. The energy of death. The energy of anguish. The energy of love. Of tears, cascading water, stagnation.

The energy of dance and flight and repose. The energy of quasars and quarks and black holes. The energy of falling and crashing. The energy of prayer. The energy of fusion. A single white heat. A diversity meltdown until illusion floats free like a veil, down into gravity’s maw.

A radiance, consuming all the secrets that will never be told.