Trigger Warning

Just seeing the word—
the reach of that R
A’s legs pulled open
(a forearm to brace them)
the vag at A’s upended v
the stiff shaft of the P

APE that he was
that damn three-legged E
see how A leans away
from R’s cock-
bully pose— hand
thrust onto his hip

the tip of the A– two wrists
pinned at the apex—
the punch of P’s fist
in the chest and the eye
the E from an eye-chart
all bloodshot and blurry

tumbled this way, then that
way, then this way, then that
R’s last kick like a jackknife
A’s throat swollen and choking
P’s drooping member
E’s arms spread in surrender.

But now with my finger
on R’s pen-like trigger
I let out A’s howl
P’s lip more like a snarl
with teeth bared like that E
my Rrrrr a thundering growl.

Poet, artist, and educator, Kelly Cass Falzone, earned her MFA in Writing from Spalding University, and MSEd in Counselor Education from SUNY Brockport. Her poetry appears in journals such as Stone Canoe, Nashville Arts Magazine, and Clackamas Literary Review, and has earned recognition from the Medmic Summer Poetry Contest 2024, The Bea Gonzalez Prize for Poetry, The Libba Moore Gray Prize in Poetry, and two Tennessee Writers Alliance Poetry Awards, among others. Having written, produced, and directed shows for the stage, Kelly’s collaboration with Southern Word entitled “Nashville Now: Literary Census” was recognized with a “Spoken Word Trailblazer Award” from Soul Food Poetry Café. She was most recently named an OZ Arts/Porch Art Wire Fellow for 2024-2025 season. Originally from Rochester, NY, Kelly has lived in Nashville, TN, for over thirty years.