Eyewitness To Shooting That Could Have Been Me Poem by Oscar Mireles

My brother Junior didn’t remember
what happened last weekend
when he first opened the front door

Omero and Charley entered in
with drunken laughter
talking about Janie’s
hot cousin from Kenosha

Not aware that an ambush
was awaiting them
above loud voices
playing poker
in a grimy crowded kitchen

Suddenly,
spindly card table overturns
green money and yellow screams
fly about as
dark fists race angry faces
for the best angle

Crazily
a gun
not aimed at anyone
went off
Charly is stuck in the way

His brown eye
shattered red
on his shirt
on the floor

His dreams
lay still
underneath the sunglasses
left on the carpet