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Hound Shoots Croatian Hunter

–Newspaper Headline; Jutarnji List Daily, 10/04

I could have told you, Spaso Ivosevic,

this is the way of all clichés on friendship.

If not your back, then your ankle,

the bullet path centimeters outside

your peripheral vision,

the pain, yes, unexpected, but as inevitable

as the woods’ lure, the joy

of the kill.

You’ll live but with a limp,

if you’re lucky, a scar

large enough to warn others,

yourself.

Sure, you tell me he was chasing

chickens, stormed past, for just a second,

turned those puppy eyes

on something else. Such loyalty,

you’d hate to put him down. What does it matter—

gun propped against the wall,

you, a veteran? I’ve heard it before,

typed up the medical reports

seconds before that other gunshot,

the one aimed for the head.