Monday 21 October 2019

Walter's Gun by Chris Lloyd

Walter Cooper had a hand gun
one with his name on it
if you ignored the fact that
an “aitch” was after the “tee”
on the stock.
Walter did ignore that fact.

Walter loved his Walther but
didn’t love anything else.
Except Hetty a long time ago;
he’d given up when she died.
Now it was his gun he adored


He couldn’t remember a day
that passed that he didn’t
fire it. One shot. One death.
Then a complete strip down
and clean. Like his mum did
to him every day. Scrub, scrub
until it was spotless. Scrub, scrub

He’d shot his mum on a Saturday
during the football results.
After he’d scrubbed her clean
with a wire brush he buried her
next to the goat.
He’d hated that fucking goat.
It was Hetty’s and she loved the
goat more than him. His love
for her was never returned.

Still he could say that he did
love someone. He was happy
with that. It was a shame she died
playing with his gun. But he had
told her not to. And he’d already
cleaned it that day. Fuck her.

Walter went through all this
in his head every day after he’d
killed the day’s victim. That
day it was a squirrel  that had
exploded into tiny bits.

Today was in the summer and
Walter and his Walther were
on a hunt. He'd spotted a man
with a big black dog walking
on his land. He'd never seen a 
person on his land before.

They were getting closer to the
man and his dog. Time to be
careful. Walter and his Walther
stopped dead still and watched.
Suddenly the man lifted a gun
to his shoulder and shot a bird.

Walter was shaken.
The man's gun was big and loud;
He knew he had to stop the man
leaving his land so he retreated and
made a plan. He had to get close enough
to stop him using the big gun but near
enough so that he could use his Walther.

They carefully circled round to be
in front of the man, picked a place
where the man and his dog would
have to walk. Walter and Walther waited.
The man and dog were close.

Very quietly he cocked the gun; as soon
as he had a big black dog came crashing
through the bushes, stopped dead at the 
sight of Walter. Then more crashing
and the man stood in front of his dog.
The dog looked up at the man, the 
man knelt down and stroked it.

The man looked at Walter's gun, scared.
Walter saw how much the man and
dog loved each other, like he did Hetty
today and every day and he sobbed. As he did
Walter put the Walther to his mouth and
went to find her.

3 comments:

  1. Original, intriguing and rather sad. I liked this very much.

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  2. This poem put me in mind of Carol Ann Duffy's "Education for Leisure" and David Bowie's "Valentine's Day". Unsettling company to be in. Well done, Chris!

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  3. oh my goodness, well that was an ending to remember! Well done, completely gripping!

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