Why I’m Not John Wayne

“Fill your hand, you son of a bitch.”  — John Wayne before a gunfight in True Grit

According to some
mine is
always full
and
every word of mine’s 
a pistol or grenade
and

while
they may be right
more often than not

they don’t see that 
the weapon and the atttude
are vastly 
self-directed;

that any damage to others
is incidental;

that the thought
that I’ve shed blood
with my words
on purpose

is as unfamiliar to me
as the Duke’s swagger,

which on me resembles
nothing more than
a drunken, stumbling tumble
to the rocks.