Rage
by John C. Mannone
Wounded,
she emptied six slugs
into
the thug’s chest; rage stoked
his
adrenaline and he continued
with
resolve, stumbled closer
to
her wielding a long kitchen knife.
Lunging
a quick thrust of her thick
serrated
blade before she collapsed
her
stance, she swung around, kicked
and
screamed in a wild rage—
a
martial arts maneuver of flying
foot
to head, blood spraying, spilling
on
the floor. The raucous cries
of
the .38 special had awakened
her
own adrenaline, pumping.
The
momentary silence broken
by
a six-year-old’s plaintive sobs,
“Is
everything alright, Mommy?
I
heard the noise; I’m scared.”
She
hugs her daughter close
to
her heart, whispers in her ear,
“Yes,
baby, everything is fine.
It
was just the boogieman . . .
but
he won’t be coming back.
Ever.”
John
C. Mannone has poems in Windhover, North
Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore
Review, and others. Winner/Nominee of numerous
contests/awards, John edits poetry for Abyss
& Apex and other journals. He’s a physics and chemistry professor at
Alice lloyd College in Kentucky.
http://jcmannone.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/jcmannone/
