Challenging Poetry

the pistol principle

"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." Anton Chekhov

a pistol appears in the first line,
green and red and filled
with bubbles that shoot forth
in arcs of rainbows
while children shriek laughter
into the universe
before the end of the poem.

Prompt: April 5—Chekhov or another Russian writer