after the second shot of reposado

the paramedic speaks of a call from a man with a gun on his tongue

nervousness causing the barrel to slide out just before firing

blowing his jawline and dentures into the backseat

 

into his third beer

he mutters about a twenty-two year old who combined adrenaline with asphalt

hair and eyebrows remained pristine, bloodied chaos to everything below

a poor bastard who now needs to edit his Tinder profile

 

laughter

silence

 

sleep is at times hard to find

when the meat grinder mangles the hand of an assertive factory worker

 

firecrackers obliterate the forearms of a father

while his children wait to be astounded in vibrancy

 

the bludgeoned elderly Haitian man who called the paramedic Jesus

and whispered to not take him away from his family just yet

 

a knife invading the skull and nicking the temporal lobe

of someone trying to stop a fight between drunken nephews

 

engage and detach

laugh and become silent

 

the clouds reclaim the airspace