Author: DB Cox
Location: South Carolina

DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the U.S., and abroad. He has published five books of poetry: Passing For Blue, Lowdown, Ordinary Sorrows, Empty Frames, and Nightwatch. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times.

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Cross of the Mind

    --- One of the last doctors in the country to perform late-term abortions, Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in May of 2009, in the foyer of his Wichita church, by Scott Roeder, a "born again" religious fanatic.

face-up--eyes closed
arms outstretched
to either side
of a king-size bed
a copy of gideon's bible
rides up & down
on the chest
of a soldier
in the "army of god"
marking time
on a cross of the mind
in a cheap wichita motel

the plan is clear
everything he wants to say
reduced
to a single blinding point

a righteous warning message
to lost sinners

a technicolor caution sign
to would-be baby killers

a .22 caliber declaration
from a holy nowhere man
to a doctor
who hides
behind gated walls
& immoral laws
that cannot save him

almost time to go
lock & load
short drive up the road
to the imaginary
sunday-morning
sanctuary

church bells toll

lost in altruistic dreams
the depraved savior
quietly sings a slaying song

"onward christian soldiers
marching as to war
with the cross of jesus
going on before..."

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