STEVEN D. SCHROEDER

Scenario Editor

We only had to take a picture.
According to our mission briefing,
we had to fix the camera
and take a picture of the missing person.
The mysterious block-letter voiceover
said we had less than a day
to fix the camera with a pickaxe
and take a picture of the missing person
in a desert stacked with rattlesnakes.
Decoded, our contact's message
via Cold War teletype told us
for full pay we had less than a day
to fix the tamper-proof security camera
with a pickaxe undetected
and take a picture of the missing person
carrying a briefcaseload of secrets
in a desert stacked with landmines
and rattlesnakes before she died.
We only had to take this one little thing.
For the key to a safe deposit box
holding a systems administrator job
with a heartland insurance firm,
retake one alkaline map-square
scaled an inch to indefinite klicks.
For directions to a jewelry box
with Fourth of July fountains
redder and bluer than any on the block,
take coordinates for one airstrike
ending a Mexican standoff.
For clues toward a shoebox
buried with a stranger's childhood
memories of dirtbikes and sandcastles,
take one shot to hit what might be.
For rumors about a matchbox
of dirt and sand, take breath
straight from one throat. For a box,
take away one weightless item.