Mark

why

the police said that
mark took the gun from his dad.
his dad kept his guns under his bed
in a locked-up case
that mark shouldn't have known the password to.

mark's dad was a good man.
he always volunteered,
and he made sure that everybody had a warm roof.
he kept the guns
because his wife,
mark's mom,
was killed by a robber on a rainy wednesday.
like the wednesday
that mark attacked us.

the neighborhood kids
egged mark's dad's house
and told him that people like him are going to hell.
yesterday,
i saw him sitting the ledge of
the bridge.
cigarettes
surrounded him.

when they took mark away,
he screamed like an animal.
his eyes were wild.
they were like a typhoon in midnight,
and he had to be restrained by
three officers.

jenny's mom is a police officer,
and she told us that
mark screamed all night
until his voice was raw.
but he only screamed
his mother's name.