harm less no. 5

She’d just grown up with it:
the smell of muscle and the clench of fist
some fucker yelling with whiskey on his breath
it was get a tattoo or shoot a goddamn gun.

They were too bloody young
but they were old enough to know
from the lip split rib cracked hand upside the head.
It was get a tattoo or shoot a goddamn gun.

Every year they got more hollowed out
beaten down left on the street.
If you wanted souvenirs in this family –
it was get a tattoo or shoot a goddamn gun.

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