by Jim Bohen

10 Poems You Won’t Survive . . .

• the chute won’t open.
• the oxygen is running out; it’s outer
    space, no rescue ship.
• you’re on the list from Robespierre.
• a new gestapo’s cornered you;
    it’s only a matter of time.
• your army lost to Genghis Khan.
• the bounty hunter “Never-Alive”
   is on your trail — his trigger finger
  itches; you’re getting very pale.
• you’re Julius Caesar, Ides of March.
• lifeboats gone, ocean’s cold,
    Titanic’s cracked and going down.
• your name’s Macbeth;
    the wood to Dunsinane has come.
• the cancer has metastasized,
    containing it is done.

. . . and 10 You Just Might

a lightning strike, a head-on-crash,
a mass shooting, the London Blitz.
a Nazi concentration camp,
a nasty fall, Moby Dick.
a terror attack, barrel bombs
dropped on your town, Mrs. Peacock
in the hall with the candlestick.