Gunshots This Morning

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to the sound of a gunshot. And then another. And then another.

I lay there quietly panicked, alone in my house and contemplating what to do. I think about calling the cops . I check my phone and see a late night text from my Grandma saying that my Grandpa's horse, Traveler, has died.

Sorrow mixes into the panic.

The gunshots woke the birds who are now tweeting and cawing. I hear the low hum of trucks idling but no sirens.

I get up to go to the bathroom and I see red and blue flashing lights through the frosted glass.

I look through another window and make out the boxy square of an ambulance.

I go back to bed and think about moving to the country while wishing there was someone stronger than me there that I could hold onto.