This sonnet is your personal amulet
To be worn in instance of need
Or constantly held in the mind
Occurring here and elsewhere at this moment
This sonnet is sent without cunning
To cull a particular phrase from your lips
To enlist another protector
In this age of malcontent benefactors
Against an ironclad schooner
Feudal kingdom
Dismemberment by jubilant crowds
Strangely indifferent faces
Heat and dust besides
Suicide implicating others

Original appearance in Poetry magazine.

Come hear Laynie Browne read at the E-Verse Equinox Reading Series with Daisy Fried, Kim Bridgford, and Paul Siegell in Philadelphia.