borrow pit

there's ghosts on my fingers
smell of gun powder, beagle howl.
daddy said i needed to learn
how to be a man. in the spring
there were tracks in his arms
chased by a bank. mom

took my baby brothers and ran
but they didn't get far. after
i heard the shots, i crouched
like he taught me in the deer
blind, i was zigzagged wings
on ducks flying over early

morning lakes. i guess he forgot
how to sight movement , maybe
he was ready for the easier target