Originally posted in 2002 on the ancient blogging site, Diaryland.  Which, much to my surprise, is still up and running in 2014.

The moment I knew my life
would be different forever

was when the whoosh-snap
of the rifle

dissolved into my chest.
The sound of it and the feeling of it

were one and the same and the only way
I knew the sound had been there

was by its immediate absence
as I fell back.

All that – and of course
this too: my target 

fell back without making a sound of his own,
and did not get up again.