Elegy Entangled With The Wild West

She went to Target to buy cleaning supplies,
but bought death instead.
She inadvertently bought the dirty little coward

who shot Mr. Howard,
she bought the little bastard & lost the receipt.
She couldn’t trade one death for another.

She had just graduated from high school,
she had her whole life before her,
love, loneliness, pain, disease, babies,

but the dirty little coward
who shot Mr. Howard
was stalking her, followed her to the car,

abducted her from the Target parking lot.
The red bullseye sign didn’t even blink,
the security camera told the story, but not why.