BARRIO STORY

 

My father owned a hardware store

I was there after hours one night

A friend of mine came by to visit

Dusted out of his mind

 

He started tearing up the store

So I had to throw him out

It pissed him off big time

Told me I wasn't his friend anymore

 

He was in a gang

He swore he'd shoot me down

I knew that he meant business

So I thought about leaving town

 

I thought I saw him and his gang

When I was walking home that night

Up through the mist on the overpass bridge

Surrounded by grimy light

 

A tribe of laughing jokers

Causing death and misery

Thinking they were the coolest

Thinking they were free

 

I holed up in an empty room

With a friend standing guard outside

Wooden floor, no shade on the light

My girlfriend by my side

 

She cried and begged for me to leave town

But I thought I was safe

Maybe I could talk with him and change his mind

Maybe it wasn't too late

 

There was a tap on the window glass

The face of my friend standing guard was there

I pulled up the window to talk to him

His face was hard and emotionless

 

The window was up just inches

When the barrel of his shotgun poked me in the stomach

My heart raced hard

 

I looked in his eyes for a second

The second I had left to live

He'd sold me out

I'd never guessed

 

I heard my girlfriend scream and then

The shot-

A sound like an iron door slamming hard

For the last time

 

No pain-

But the room splintered into

A thousand pieces of light

Like popping a balloon

That used to be a screen

Reflecting scenes of my life

 

Afterwards

She and a friend cried

Giving statements at the station

While my lifeless body lay in the morgue

 

My spirit spied them one last time

Before I got the call-

 

That's all.

 

GS, 7/3/91

 

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