Monday, June 13, 2016

UNTOLD

Orlando, 6/12/2016

On the screen in my living room
the newsman sits
calm
benevolent
groomed
Over his shoulder
a name
a number
Alejandro Barrios Martinez
21
             (21!)
maybe a selfie
or a picture from his little sister's quinceaƱera
"He lit up a room" they'll say, or
"He'd give you the shirt off his back"
and we might learn that
he was a pre-med student
or worked in his father's bakery.

But that's not the whole story

The whole story is how
Alejandro Barrios Martinez
21
called his grandmother every Sunday
even though she had dementia
or how the roast caught fire at his first dinner party
and they ordered Domino's instead
and everyone said it was the best dinner party they had ever been to.

The whole story is how
Alejandro Barrios Martinez
21
spent the last moments of his life
afraid
bloody
crying
and lying on a dirty nightclub floor.

The story of Alejandro Barrios Martinez
took 21 years to tell
multiplied by forty-nine
plus fifty-three
plus the lives of everyone at that dinner party
and one grandmother 

On the screen in my living room
a name
a number
And I can't bear to look
but I can't look away
because
on the screen in my living room
the name
and the number 
are mine

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