Im PEACH ment
for Father Daniel Berrigan

Chattering in blue light
imposters eat peaches

before a starving nation
the juice is fantastical

dripping as it does on Con
stitutions and posers

bib fronts, cons, and tie tacks
Swift and furious fall tiny blue

birds, crushed
like children’s toys and rusty moths

Everyone watches
honest thieves have codes of honor

predictable, sequential, and con
sequential but not these violent

top dogs
staring in a dark window

abandoned back of father’s hand
Children watch the screen

glass smudged with fat
These thieves gnaw others fleshy bits

on live tv
spit out the thrones, pits between teeth

In the middle, the three-legged dog
joyful, dancing, sideways step stepping

prance prance from dawn’s first gape
limping and leaping for the forgotten treat

See the game of bones
scattered like sheep’s knuckles

dumped on a pile
sweep the winnings up fast

wipe your chin, send warm condolences
Before, before

Rose Marie Berger is a Catholic peace activist and poet. This poem is part of an unpublished collection.