Photo: Sean O'Neal

—terza rima haiku sonnets

1.

I’ve had an interest
in rayguns since I was five,
when I saw my first.

Father shot a live
bird dead, right between the eyes.
A needle hole gave

the lone hint of why
the bird had died. I was hooked.
Not long after, I

began to collect
rayguns, from the famous and
infamous. Intrigued

by how anyone could end
a life so quick, on command.

2.

I tried to visit
many warriors and spacemen’s
chronotopes — planets

and ships — for a chance
to steal their weapons. Phasers
hijacked from Captains

Kirk, Picard. Blasters
from Han Solo, Chewbacca.
And Marvin of Mars —

his trusty Acme
pistol. Paralyzer gun
made by Doc Zarkov

for Flash Gordon (once Tarzan).
My TARDIS filled with rayguns.

3.

Friends, my life has stood —
a loaded raygun, fully
charged and ready, good

for battle, truly
primed. On Earth I’m like Loki
the Trickster, wooly,

wild, ghostlike, smoky.
I drift like the breeze; you won’t
see me, way low key.

That’s how I’ve purloined
these celebrity rayguns,
magicked and siphoned

in mystical elegance.
I’m gone. And so’s your raygun.

Courtesy of Vince Gotera. Originally published in Altered Reality Magazine, June 2024.