Did the ducks and geese
rise off the pond in unison
at the sound?

Did sun-drowsed turtles
slip gently into the water
from their log hammocks?

Did the man in the golf cart
feel luck ruffle his cheek
as the bullets missed their mark?

The air is still vibrating
not even a football field away
from slides and swings

where children play
and tranquility’s fragments
litter beloved manicured paths.

Emily-Sue Sloane (emilysuesloane.com) is an award-winning Long Island poet whose first full-length collection, We Are Beach Glass, came out in 2022. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including (forthcoming) Evening Street Review, Mobius Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review, Panoply, Suffolk County Poetry Review and (forthcoming) Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Review.