The Test of the Gauge

(This is a work of fiction, nothing more)

(A work in Progress)

David felt the cold steel in his mouth

He tasted the gun oil

It brought back memories of days gone by

Oh God

Why do they push us so

The Republicans

The Christians

They all want to take

They want us all to be like them

Why God, oh why do they hurt us

with their controlling ways

Why do they want to destroy

all of our freedoms

In the name of what they feel is right

They scare the children

They starve the poor

They cry out in God’s name

But it isn’t about God

Its about control

Do as I say

David pulled the hammer back

The sound was infinite

He had loaded the gauge with double ought buck

He sat on his bed

The butt of the shotgun was between his feet

The barrel was in his mouth

He had a stick carved in to a “Y”

Pushing against the trigger

He felt the resistance

This time he pushed a little further

He couldn’t stop them

He knew it

They would always push

Further and further

So he would do the same

He pushed harder this time

He expected to hear an explosion

But he knew that if he pushed far enough

that he  wouldn’t  hear it anyway

All he wanted was peace

All he wanted was to be left alone

All he wanted was for the children

to live without being forced

in to someone else’s belief

of what’s right.

The sweat poured from his face

His jaws clasped the steel

The smell of the gun oil was in his sinuses

Shaking

His grip on the stick relaxed

The trigger returned to rest easy in its home

The stick fell

The steel barrel slid from between his lips

He let the gun slide to the floor

David collapsed on to the bed

His wife lay sleeping beside him

He had passed the test of the gauge once again

He was ready to face their persecution

He knew that they were relentless

And that they only cared for themselves and what they thought was right

But he had passed the test’

He would face them for yet another day

David unloaded the gauge

Slid beneath the covers and went to sleep

Nobody would ever know of the tests that he faced

Nobody would ever know

That he gave up the peace of the forever sleep

To protect the children for another day.