Poetry

Mike Maguire photo

By

Alejandro Escudé

Sealed Charges

I take my handgun to get cleaned and the gunsmith 

keeps commenting on the film on the big screen: 

Sex and the City 2. He says, “Who was this movie 

made for anyway?” There’s a scene for single women, 

one for husbands dragged along to see it with their 

spouses, a scene for the kids who may be watching. 

He shows me a filthy Q-tip, but says I’ve taken 

good care of it, that my firearm looks brand new. 

I listen to the popping of the guns in the range area. 

A woman walks in, then a couple, a black man wearing

a sleeveless undershirt, a white man with long guns.

Who will it be? Who conspired with the Russians?

Will the takedown come like Oswald at the theater?

Will the “You’re fired!” tag line be used at last,

sardonically, over the forty-fifth waving goodbye

before the helicopter crosses the Potomac? I grasp 

back my gun from the gunsmith, steal a last glance 

at hotty Charlotte—then walk out into the sunset.

Alejandro Escudé

Alejandro Escudé’s first book of poems, My Earthbound Eye, was published in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.