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Heart Events

A man with the slurred speech of a stroke victim phoned in to a radio call-in show with a question: “Would Jesus wear a firearm?” I made a gun with my thumb and forefinger and held it to my head. Rain was scribbling aimlessly on the window. It couldn’t form words to express what I was feeling. But don’t worry, this isn’t a regular occurrence. A heart also serves as a polygraph, a wine glass, a Nazi death camp guard, a boat—a small flimsy boat that gives no promise of arrival.

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Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of The Loser's Guide to Street Fighting, winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize from Thoughtcrime Press, and Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements, winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry.