The Debt by David Spicer

Dan paid Bill a C-note he owed for years.
He sent him a check by certified mail.

The check certified the end of a debt.
I think alcoholic Dan was making amends.

Dan wasn’t trying to mend a fence with Bill.
Dan told Bill his brother Bob had just died.

Thirty years back, Dan, Bill, Bob drank like brothers.
Bob killed his wife with a shotgun for cheating.

He cheated, but his wife didn’t own shotguns.
Bob lived in prison for years where he painted.

He painted prisoners for years, was paroled.
He drove to a bar, drank with Dan and Bill.

Bob and Dan drank too much. Bill picked up the tab.
Bill smiled at the C-note Dan owed for years.

David Spicer has published poems in Santa

Clara Review, Synaeresis, The Sheepshead Review, Remington Review, Steam

Ticket, Third Wednesday, CircleStreet, The American Poetry Review,

Ploughshares, Moria, Oyster River Pages, Gargoyle, and elsewhere. Nominated

for a Best of the Net three times and a Pushcart twice, he is author of six

chapbooks, the latest being Tribe of Two (Seven CirclePress). His second

full-length collection, Waiting for the

Needle Rain, is now available from Hekate Publishing. His website is http://www.davidspicer76.com