nobody

would have guessed the library
storyteller spent 5 to 10 years
in the New Hampshire State Men’s prison
8 am to 6 pm days in the license plate shop stamping
“live free or die,” in with the numbers
he got out. got on. lived like the best
of us or like the worst of us
found a gig or two here and somehow ended
up at the library
they put him behind the
the puppet show curtain
to hide his swastika tattoo and
scar across his right cheek
you’d never know it prison
that whole bit each puppet
had a borrowed voice and each story
had a borrowed moral you’d never see
the license plates or the prisons or the tattoos,
but one day one of the puppet’s arms broke and he
would reach up with his own hand and salute
with the word “hate” tattooed on his knuckles
i never saw him after that

one shot

the blood on your knuckles wasn’t
yours and you weren’t
you but you were

the smile the spilled drink the over
turned bar stools and the lights
fluorescent and humming cold
the crowd’s almost silence
a stranger down bloody
unconscious from one straight left

his wife stood there
silent as a lily in the ashes
of a forest fire
and you looked at her
and she looked at you silent
she looked at you
not tending him, not crying,
but standing she looked at you
just over her shoulder
you could see the exit sign
flicker

John Mitchel is a poet dabbling in fiction. He lives in Arkansas where he trains his boxing skills and teaches writing. His most notable work is Death Tells Me Jokes from ELJ Publications.