O Death

by Justin Hamm

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2024

About the author

Originally from the flatlands of central Illinois, Justin Hamm now lives near Twain Territory in Missouri, where he works as a K-12 Librarian/Media Specialist in a small rural school district. His work, fiction or poetry, has appeared in numerous publications. Recent work has also been selected for the Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize from the St. Louis Poetry Center. Justin earned his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2005.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

He slept in a one-room cabin

deep in the woods that night windows open wide to the gospel of spring air which should have been glotous beneath three blankets but the lock on the front door had rusted out over time and he came to sleep uneasily and it was no surptise when the nightmares arrived but instead of a murderer or even a wayward meth addict with a stolen crowbar crashing into the darkness with a Nicholsonian grin anxiety produced an even more terrible film a live shooter at the elementary school where he worked the godawful drumbeats of gunshots the alarm and the garbled instructions over the automated intercom as he rushed twenty-two tiny panicked bodies into a storage closet the size of a half bath only to realize he'd forgotten the class roster though he counted and counted he could not remember everyone's name gagging on stomach acid trying gently to shush a crier whose face he couldn't see once he turned out the lights there were hands on his legs tiny hands grabbing at his hands shuffling sounds in the corner and something falling from a shelf he tried to tether himself to time but could not keep from thinking of his youngest daughter upstairs in the fourth grade room the ancient door and wide window such slight barriers between her and whatever desperately wanted return them to the Earth as dust fear with its ruthless intelligence playing chess while everyone else was so busy always trying to jump over top of their allies checkers then morning the heartpound the sweat the coffee and a question how many others have this same dream behind doors locked or unlocked in town or out in the woods each night in the miraculous country of limiless Litle Debbie snacks the very first country in the world to put a human on the moon