Dave Buracker’s poem Wearing Masks appeared here in April 2015.

What Joseph Said
By Dave Buracker

A pre-disposition to play hero,
I am hard-wired as action star,
activated by archetype;

thrash wood swords toward
threshold guardian tower,
trash before treasure.

In the backyard oak shadow,
a child’s fear creeps to
windows at night.

Perhaps our caste is coded
with dream memory in DNA,
held in double helix, or

a triple play solitary line
piercing protein spiral
sequence, pronounces.

Through tireless campaigns
before curtains fall, we cut
–to shed the dark.