[Crystal]

 

I thank my parents often 

for their apparent insight 

 

into my rough right 

to have the internal fight 

to choose my own truth. 

 

I didn’t choose this dark birth. 

For what it’s worth, no one does. 

 

But, you truly chose 

Bree to be your prized lover 

to discover pain 

 

that reigns unexplained until 

the mantra applied defies 

 

confusion’s dense fog. 

When you chose the lovely Bree 

you chose a shared path 

 

to meet Henry Twisting’s wrath

[Johnathan]

 

and a bath in Twisting’s blood

 

with an aftermath 

of guilt, remorse and regret 

that floods both beings 

 

that brings misgivings that stings 

Bree constantly leaving her 

 

unfree to feel peace.

[Crystal]

 

Cause-effect chains always strain 

with more sore choices 

 

of diverse magnitude and 

quantity that increases 

 

one’s uncertainty.

[Kevin]

 

Are you saying I should stay 

far away form Bree to save 

 

her aggravation 

from my determination 

to quell aggression 

 

from some narcissistic bum 

too dumb to know how to show 

 

some kindness and love 

to a woman far above 

his crabby old self?

[Crystal]

 

We’re not telling you to do 

anything but to think well.

 

Repel your smugness; 

see accountability’s 

need to teach you truths.

 

[Johnathan]

 

What conclusion do you reach 

after Twisting breached your door? 

 

What do you suppose 

was his first intent to vent 

upon you and Bree?

[Kevin]

 

Surely, you are kidding me?

he wanted to kill, to spill 

 

my blood and/or her’s. 

Death was going to occur 

void an arbiter. 

 

The cops found his revolver 

bound in his shoulder holster.

[Johnathan]

 

It was true to you, 

then, that you had to end life. 

Justified or not 

 

taking a life rots the soul. 

Unchecked it forms a black hole 

 

that sucks all goodness 

and humanity from strong 

willed men who will bend 

 

to the need to succeed with 

a zenith beyond solving 

 

any given task 

to bask under the halo, 

glow and fine fortunes 

 

of superiority’s 

greed to be the meanest male 

 

in the human pack 

ready to do whatever 

is necessary 

 

including mass murder or 

mass extinction since killing 

 

was easily seen, 

animalistically, 

as keen attitudes 

 

widely used in mastodon 

hunting, a phenomenon 

 

that drove herds over 

rocky cliffs or worshiped chiefs 

taking and eating 

 

enemy hearts on alters 

to pugnaciously please gods. 

 

Weak willed souls would choose 

insanity to eschew 

that reality.

[Crystal]

 

But you, Kevin, aren’t on course 

to be such a coarse person. 

 

It’s plain to see that 

you will engage in combat 

to wrestle with rage 

 

caged in yourself with yourself. 

You never celebrated 

 

the deflated life 

of a sordid enemy. 

Instead, you chastise 

 

your action to brutalize 

without any compromise.

[Marlo]

 

Kevin, like a deer 

caught in headlights at night, stares 

into the bare truth 

 

of Johnathan’s and Crystal’s 

fast flowing, long stream of words.

[Johnathan]

 

You must consider 

accountability’s rule 

to school ignorance 

 

and your role, unknowingly, 

to dole out consequences. 

 

Individuals 

like Twisting enhances chance 

in diversity 

 

through much negativity 

wrought in wrongful thoughts caught well 

 

in naïveté 

and elitist ignorance 

that spews violence. 

The old adage that’s been told

is “The hand of god” moves souls.

 

From my point of view, 

it’s you, in this case, that placed 

god’s final judgement 

 

on the narcissistic heart 

that started some time ago 

 

to sow vast sadness 

and debilitating fear 

that adheres to souls 

 

like barbed wire to soft flesh 

that controls one’s resistance 

 

to his persistence 

for asserting his alpha 

and omega stance.

[Kevin]

 

So you believe it was meant 

for me to cement his fate 

 

with my lethal gun? 

My fate is to ply god’s hate. 

Ridiculous guff! 

 

It’s the stuff of fairytales. 

I knew he was dangerous.

[Crystal]

 

Precisely, you knew!

The lessons learned in your life 

earned up to this point 

 

would prove to disappoint souls 

laced with self idolized pride.

 

Fate has never been 

personally specific. 

The terrific fact 

 

to act upon is that Fate 

dictates outcome through events 

 

that present choices 

that reinforces one’s traits 

based upon one’s tastes 

 

when looking into mirrors. 

You are fully who you are. 

Masterfully formed 

and adorned with nuanced sight 

aiding in your fight 

 

to defend from aggression, 

you encountered another 

 

who never bothered 

to learn intimidation’s 

flawed vision of strength 

 

willing to go to great lengths 

beyond the bully’s resolve 

 

to solve the question 

of divine intervention. 

Justice is woven 

 

throughout the vast universe 

in lessons learned to turn wrong 

 

into true righteous 

condemnation through events’ 

best resolutions.

[Kevin]

 

What if I had lost the fight 

and cost Bree her life that night?

 

[Crystal]

You would be dead, too. 

Twisting would have more trouble 

with frightful forces 

 

that would need explanation 

for your lives’ termination.

 

[Kevin]

 

What good would death do 

for me and Bree to be scrapped 

as poor, lost causes

 

because I failed to nail well

the target with my bullet?