3rd Place Winner - ECC English Dept.'s Spring Poetry Contest - Brian Farrar

Brian Farrar
Let This Be My Escape
(Inspired by Motion City Soundtrack's "Hello Helicopter")

I see my getaway
so close.

Close enough to taste the liberation
I’m owed.

I feel its violent
wind pushing on my chest,
mocking my wound.

I hear boots
rustling in the sand,
struggling for freedom.

I smell the oil from its engine.
The fuel, we’re fighting for.

Now it’s gone. Fleeing
from the land, as
hope flees my mind.

Helicopter, you fly so far above me I can’t
taste you now. I taste only the foreign dirt
grinding between my teeth,
and blood
bittersweet in my mouth.

Helicopter, now I can’t
feel you. I feel only the ground
under my back, and the bullet
trapped in my chest.

Helicopter, now I can’t
hear you. I can only hear the crackling
of a nearby fire and the sound of guns being shot.

Helicopter, now I can’t
smell you. I only smell flesh burning
as I lay on this battlefield.

Helicopter, now I can’t
see you. I see one final bullet in my gun,
and a choice not to be made lightly.