Dear Gun, and Master Sommelier Blind-Tastes a Glass of Water

Abstract

Dear Gun, and Master Sommelier Blind-Tastes a Glass of Water David Hernandez (bio) Dear Gun Again you’re on television,printed repeatedly in newsprint,on pages of overcast sky that crackle when turned.On monitors too,glowing bluely across America. On our minds and tongues,your word, monosyllabic, justthree curled fingers. Let me tell you:I’ve had it with hearing your name.I am tired of seeing your L-shape design, the black sickle of your trigger.How dumb you lookwith your little round mouth open all the time.Say something insightful for once.Or is that opening your nostril? Perhaps your navel?To be honest, I do not care anymore.You will never speak for yourself.How helpless and useless you arewithout a human hand. [End Page 60] Master Sommelier Blind-Tastes a Glass of Water for Shara McCallum This glass: did you rinse it?I ask because there’s sedimentswirling like a time-lapse of a galaxyif stars were debriswithout their shining. So you rinsed it. With gutter waterI presume, then dried itwith a mechanic’s rag.Then it’s tap. Now on to the nose: the chlorine isoverwhelming, wow, whoshoved me into a swimming pool?It’s positively tap. I’m also picking upsome witchgrass and moneywort, it’s noteasy with all this sodium chlorideassaulting my sinuses. Penny,I’m detecting old penny, a hintof natural gas. I have to say I amhesitant to taste this. Here it goes: O, damnmy astute taste buds! There is definitelychlorine in this ghastly thingI refuse to call water. It’s just bleach,weeds, petrol, brass, butmostly bleach. No mineral noteswhatsoever. [End Page 61] I’m going tapfrom a brass faucet, from a regionruined by fracking. This isNew World, possibly United Statesor Brazil. I’m callingUnited States, Pennsylvania, Laurel Highlands, 2013 vintage. I have to say: This faucet you found?The small town where you found it?Their mayor does notlove them enough. [End Page 62] David Hernandez David Hernandez’s most recent collection of poems, Hoodwinked, won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and was published by Sarabande Books in 2011. Visit his website at www.DavidAHernandez.com. Copyright © 2014 Middlebury College Publications