Kimberly Grey is the author of several books, including Bewilder Meant (Persea, 2027) and The Opposite of Light, winner of the 2015 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize. The recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, she earned a PhD in comparative literature and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati and teaches at the University of North Texas.

Unsystem the System

by Kimberly Grey

We don’t say we are armed when we mean
our arms. We don’t say
                          we are armed.

Though our arms are real,
             they are really arms,
                           and we could use them
to disarm ourselves now.
             We could use them
             to squeeze or hold or load
                          not a gun, not a gun,
             please not another gun.
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