Hero of Sutherland Springs
Seth Wieck
August 7, 2022
accolades will no doubt be lavished on Stephen Willeford, who...had already used his weapon to take a crack at the gunman fleeing the First Baptist Church...- The New York Times
Stephen Willeford is “no stranger to pain,” he says, but he remembers crying more the first week after the shooting than he had the rest of his life combined.- Texas Monthly
Prairie dog burrows break
horses’ legs. You ever shoot a
horse your daughter named?
Horses twitch and flop,
bucking to get back up, then
buckle and fall again.
The horse’s name was
Star, for the mark on her head.
That is where I aimed
the first shot. Two shots
settled it. Living bodies
want to keep living.
I was napping when
my daughter woke me. “Do you
hear gunshots?” she asked.
Barefoot in the street,
I called him a name I don’t
want to repeat here.
My momma washed my
mouth for cursing my brother.
Jesus called that murder.
He was flesh and blood.
I’ve since called him a demon.
Demon— but a man.
His lung must have burst,
spilling air, breathed image of
God, filling with blood.
Whistling, gurgling words;
syllables slipping in blood.
What is it he said?
No doubt because I'm
her father, my daughter will
curse men with my words.
Daughter, Daughter sing.
Name the horse. Name her rider
True, True and Faithful.
Seth Wieck's writing has appeared in Narrative Magazine, Grand Little Things, and Ekstasis Magazine. His story "Plaster Madonna" is forthcoming in Belle Point Press's Mid/South Anthology. He lives in Amarillo with his wife and three children.
