The call came over the radio,
My partner and I eager to accept
The task of taking down an armed robber
Who stole from the local convenience store.
We arrived on scene moments after the call,
The suspect dashing through bushes and scaling fences,
I, much quicker than my partner, caught up to him
In seconds; I told him to freeze with my gun upraised.
He turned towards me, with a scruffy beard graying and a scar above his eye,
His pistol aimed at my heart with a sneering laugh.
I glanced down and broke out into a sweat,
Remembering that my bullet proof vest lay in the squad car;
He saw my panic and before I knew it, the last words I heard
Were my partner screaming at me to shoot; a shot rang in the air.
I felt a stab of red hot pain and looked at my chest,
Watching the crimson pour from a hole made by his bullet;
My knees buckled and I collapsed on the pavement as he fled,
Fading into the nothing that awaited me
As my lungs fought against the liquid in them.
The funeral was quiet, members of my unit surrounding the coffin
As well as my wife and young daughter, all their faces solemn
As a man and a woman, one my partner, folded a flag
And handed it to my love; my partner whispering his condolences.
She stared at him and mutely shook her head,
Gripping our daughter's tiny hand
And holding the folded flag to her chest.
