I gaze out at the sunset of a searing
summer day
Like molten glass
Spotted through the trees
Beautiful, yet it burns my eyes

As I watch the day end out of the expansive window
I notice a smudge
Dog slobber, perhaps
Fingerprints of a young girl
Wind-blown dust from the outside

And most definitely there
Always has been
Above the smudge
A bullet hole

Where did it come from, Mom?
Who shot it?
Only a bb gun
No danger
Nobody is shooting now

But childlike curiosity
Had made it more sinister
More daring
The day I discovered it
Long ago

As I watch the sunset
Older now, knowing better, curiosity
subsided
The child in me sinks beneath the
horizon forever