Meg Kelleher

Make Me an Instrument

Help me burn
what remains 

of my family.
Render their softness 

into a taper of goatseye
flame. The utility 

of a tooth is more
apparent in firelight. 

My brother’s boots
may be worth something 

in a trade. Others on my way
will promise kindness— 

stroking conies, hiding
the child’s eyes. 

These are the last
I should believe. Ones

who would waste
their own brutality.

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Meg Kelleher is an English Literature Ph.D. dropout and licensed clinical social worker who writes in Chicago.