Attention Shoppers

No one said anything after the outburst
and the angry man in sunglasses
pushed her to the ground.
It was the middle of a Sunday
at the grocery store
when everyone was shopping
and you could always find
some shit somewhere on sale.

In the slow motion of that silence
a teenage girl walked from
the cutlery with a knife in her hand
and almost silently buried it in his back.

He quickly punched her and she collapsed
another black eye on a day when
they were everywhere.

Another woman in her forty’s pulled a
revolver from her purse
and nearly emptied it
into the man,
who bled his heart
at least a few times over.

The woman in her panic and pharmaceutical
euphoria put the revolver to her head
and with the final bullet
ended the whole weekend.

A thin man in a wool sweater
now dotted with blood
knelt down beside her, picked
the gun up, and touched her
neck to check for any vitals.

Security alarms were blaring and
a fat clerk with a shotgun from his car
stormed over seeing all the carnage,
and the gun still in the hands
of that young man.

The spread from the short barrel
nearly cut the man in half,
when the clerk fired before
it all could be explained.

The ballistics started a fire
that spread swiftly and
the smoke triggered
the sprinklers
as the shoppers stood there
soaking on the tile.

It wasn’t him the shoppers chanted

at the fat clerk now afraid
of what he’d done that day
so rashly out in full display.

he turned the rifle on himself
but the crowd stopped him before
another shot was fired.

The one who got the gun away
was that poor woman things began with
and once she had it she just stood there
watching everyone, deciding what to do with it.