The Wounded Angel, by Ron Riekki

The Wounded Angel, by Hugo Simberg (Finland) 1903

The Wounded Angel, Hugo Simberg, 1903

The kid on the left is me.  I’ve just stolen
hubcaps, regret stealing hubcaps, have just
had my own hubcaps stolen, and here I am,

back to work, EMT, how they hire children,
how they fire children, tire children, pyre
children, how the dying angel was working,

blinded by the mines, the front kid mortician
with his black stolen hat, how we slog, how
we keep doing this, the emptiness of this job,

factory-faced, the training, how I did this
for years, ever since then, back then, my
face, then, so handsome and pissed.

Ron Riekki

​Ron Riekki’s books include My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Apprentice House Press), Posttraumatic (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle), and U.P. (Ghost Road Press).  Riekki co-edited Undocumented (Michigan State University Press) and The Many Lives of The Evil Dead (McFarland), and edited The Many Lives of It (McFarland), And Here (MSU Press), Here (MSU Press, Independent Publisher Book Award), and The Way North (Wayne State University Press, Michigan Notable Book).  Right now, he's listening to Tom Waits' "Hell Broke Loose."