The Baron

Stone cold killer
machine gun trigger,
red demon circles
with his three wings.

At twenty five he lands
his kite on its wheels,
in a field, bloody
holes in his chest.

Below in long trenches,
shit, piss, mud, cannons
fire as corpses twitch
in a haze of gas.

Silk scarf in the wind,
through misty clouds,
he loops for one last
kill in the sky.

Steve Hood is an attorney and political activist. His work won an award from the Pacific Northwest Writers' Association and has been published in many places including Crack the Spine, Maudlin House, and the anthology Noisy Water. His chapbook From Here To Astronomy was published by Pudding House.