A Few Inches Off
I’m about to die
But before I do,
let me tell you why
There was a savage battle
between some Apache scouts and my frontier men
And as they like to say
down by the Texas border,
it was a Mexican standoff
Neither side could gain an advantage
We both were dug in at the mountain pass
Blocked by the hard rain and fierce storm winds,
death by attrition started to set in
Three days struggling to weather the storm,
one by one, each side started to succumb
Until it was down to just me ... and one Apache
Then the weather broke the other way,
desert conditions brought a taste of hell you could say
The Apache stood in the way of me getting through
the mountain pass
So I made a mad dash the other way,
into the barren badlands
Thought I was safe, tucked behind a hill,
as he gave chase
I wiped my head with my tin canteen
Refreshingly cool it was to me
And I had an idle thought: to a desert rat,
the canteen was the best thing ever invented by man
But that brief distracting thought
may have just cost me my life,
for I lost track of the Apache hunting me
I cautiously raised my head to see
just where he might be
Unfortunately, I gave him a little too much sight
And a shot rang out, and I felt like it hit me
I felt numb for a moment, but I didn’t feel no pain
... I checked my body and laughed, saying to myself he missed me
But then I had a damning epiphany: he missed me on purpose!
A few inches off from hitting my heart,
instead he hit something that made me bleed out all hope ...
he hit my canteen
And I saw most of my water leak out, before I could patch it up
That Apache wanted me to die a slow, agonizing death
No swift bullet was he gonna give me
He knows that a man in the desert without his canteen,
is a dead man walking
So, I know I’m about to die soon,
probably got less than three moons
Pinned behind a rock,
and down to my last bullets too,
I hate thinking about what I never wanted to
My enemy has won
because he shot with deadly, unmerciful precision
I thought he was a few inches off,
but he was right on the mark
A dry canteen signifies my hope empty heart
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2017
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