by Shea Newton
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\nWe’ve been given a weapon.\u00a0 They are by prescription only.\u00a0 We’ve got a snub nosed revolver and ammunition.<\/p>\n
We are plagued by growths, some more powerful than others.\u00a0 We have hands that will not take what we want, that will take what we don’t.\u00a0 We have feet that pull opposite directions, mouths that speak louder than others, eyes that see too much.<\/p>\n
Our handgun will cripple the growths, rapidly and violently as they occur.\u00a0 We could graduate to a more precise instrument, a scalpel someday, but now we have a handgun.\u00a0 We use it with little or no discretion.<\/p>\n
It is peculiar to fight a weapon from our hands, hands that strain to point the barrel back into our heart.\u00a0 It is strange to hold the weapon in our hands and shoot, hoping that if there are other hands they will be different.<\/p>\n
Though it’s illegal to use recreational weapons, we do.\u00a0 With bats and knives we’ve hit our legs and arms and eyes in order to sit restful, blurry and numb.\u00a0 But the handgun is different, it keeps us safe.\u00a0 From eyes that don’t see clearly and our hands.\u00a0 It has to.<\/p>\n
There are others with growths.\u00a0 We’ve seen them, looked longingly at five legs walking in near unison, three hands embracing a lover.\u00a0 We can’t walk in unison, it’s exhausting to try.\u00a0 With the handgun we’ve grown accustomed to simply the legs that walk forward comfortably, eyes that look to the clouds on purpose and mouths speaking simple sentences.<\/p>\n
It was frightening at first, aiming at our growths each morning, hoping that our feet were bad feet.\u00a0 But now our blood clots sooner and we don’t often feel faint.\u00a0 We know that when we shake, the first shot will steady our aim.<\/p>\n
We’ve let others use our gun, we have ammunition.\u00a0 They have lost their mouths and ears, sometimes they take weeks to recover.\u00a0 Maybe they only had one mouth to begin with.<\/p>\n
We’ve been through heads.\u00a0 Recovery is quick.\u00a0 We’ve become accustomed. by Shea Newton We’ve been given a weapon.\u00a0 They are by prescription only.\u00a0 We’ve got a snub nosed revolver and ammunition. We are plagued by growths, some more powerful than others.\u00a0 We have hands that will not take what we … Continue reading
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\nSHEA NEWTON<\/strong> lives in Boise, ID, where he recently decided to never sing karaoke again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"