Need to Testify
A poem by Brandon Cesmat
The some of the how is that I couldn’t pull the trigger, not because I couldn’t kill him, but
because he had a woman, not my wife, with him. How many times have we sung along, “Can I get a
witness?” when in fact we are the witness, but don’t know what we see and how it fits a need? So when
I took his loaded, unlocked forty-five from beside his bed after reading her messages on his unlocked
phone, I walked down the road and locked his gate so when he got out to spin in the combo, I could step
from behind the trees. Kneecap or skull, I hadn’t decided, so the silhouette of a woman with hair not-
my-wife’s saved his life and his knee. Motive anew, stay free to tell the truth, witness like a bullet that
he had other business, and I had none other than her, that all that’s left after long life is love, and love is
like real estate: location, location, location. I’m finding ways to be beside, beside, beside, around,
around, around.
because he had a woman, not my wife, with him. How many times have we sung along, “Can I get a
witness?” when in fact we are the witness, but don’t know what we see and how it fits a need? So when
I took his loaded, unlocked forty-five from beside his bed after reading her messages on his unlocked
phone, I walked down the road and locked his gate so when he got out to spin in the combo, I could step
from behind the trees. Kneecap or skull, I hadn’t decided, so the silhouette of a woman with hair not-
my-wife’s saved his life and his knee. Motive anew, stay free to tell the truth, witness like a bullet that
he had other business, and I had none other than her, that all that’s left after long life is love, and love is
like real estate: location, location, location. I’m finding ways to be beside, beside, beside, around,
around, around.
Brandon Cesmat teaches at CSUSM and his books include When Pigs Fall in Love and Light in All Directions.