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.