Sodom

By Matthew J. Andrews

---

It’s not such a bad place. We work
hard all day, manning our shops,
raising our towers, forging iron
 
into sharp points. We have parades
on weekends to honor the heroes
who came before and the brave ones
 
who still keep an eye open for danger,
for the faces of strangers on our streets.
We love our children like the stars
 
and look out only for our own. We like clean
streets, flowers of every color, shady trees.
Of course we’re not perfect, but we
 
know how to transcend ourselves, how to
stand erect with hands on our hearts
and our eyes only on our flag, and to sing.

---

Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer from California. He is the author of the chapbook I Close My Eyes and I Almost Remember, and his work has appeared in Relief, Rust + Moth, Pithead Chapel and EcoTheo Review, among others. He can be contacted at matthewjandrews.com.

Matthew's other work on Foreshadow:
Contribution (Poetry, May 2022)
Jonah and the King (Poetry, March 2022)

Related works on Foreshadow:
A World for Abimael Jones (Part 1 of 2; Fiction by Sandro F. Piedrahita, March 2023)
A World for Abimael Jones (Part 2 of 2; Fiction by Sandro F. Piedrahita, March 2023)