Fight Night
Fight Night
Both shooter
and victim
came to watch,
not join the fray.
The victim
rubbed the shooter
the wrong way.
The shot man
lost his spleen,
some intestines,
and one kidney.
He will live, but
bills, missed work
prompt his family to pray.
The arrested man
was a young guy,
just engaged, they say,
but the shot man
is family – his uncle,
my brother-in-law,
a good husband to my sister,
so the shooter must pay.
Rachel Jennings teaches English
at San Antonio College. Her books
of poems are Elijah’s Farm
and Hedge Ghosts.