CHILLING OUT ON YOUR PORCH

Horror, in reality, is far more horrible than horror.. in literature!

RLJ

(Season 4, Episode 24)

CHILLING OUT ON YOUR PORCH

(Chicago, Illinois)

Your dozing eyes blinked...
For just a fraction of a second.
In a whisper quiet moment of time,
Feather light and wispy... on this warm springtime evening,
Invisible death silently grazed your temple!
Lifelessness passed by your face like a windswept mote of dust.

Few thoughts passed through your mind,
During that short moment of time.
It happened so fast... like a flash of light in your face...
A surreal numbing surprise unexpected!
You touch the trickle of blood oozing down your right cheek...
The result of another unknown origin,  pointless, flesh eviscerating stray bullet.

As usual, you heard no sound come from the darkening streets.
Where was the explosion lingering just behind the preceding stray bullet?
It does not matter, in the end, it is just another piece of stray lead.
Some people describe these mean streets as the terror zone!
Some people describe these mean streets as the horror zone!
Whatever they call it, they will... but, you call this place home!

As sad as it is to say,
Only the murder of a person brings the cops out here.
And if that person is white... then the news crews follow to describe the horror zone!
But, it is all about the guns and the bullets and the terror caused by their presence.
And what is it really to call in a gunshot wound?
Perhaps, you might a cop to come into this hood for something as simple as that.

So, you get up and go inside to attend to your wound in obscurity.
You now have another bullet slice inches away from your right eye.
This new wound matches all the other scars on your face from this harsh life.
It is a hard life, living in this deep city patch of a disenfranchised neighborhood.
And all you wanted to do was sit down and chill on your front porch.
That is, until the next stray bullet sends you back inside again to tend to your own wounds!

FAH