cause i read an article about a veteran whose brother is in prison for man-slaughter motivated by hate

you took out your fists today,
                beat and butchered a boy
who looks very much like me.
               filthy and faggoty
and already dead when they take you
              by the wrists.

             I hand in the bodies
of all my un-crimes,
      a fistful of blood-seething sand
and I am given gold.

hummingbird boy, you are inked
             on my ankle. I remember the burn,
the needling of flesh you said felt like teeth --
             yeah, you'd know about teeth.

sixteen and setting fire
            to our mother's wedding dress
just to see a bona fide destruction,
            more than the wheeling crows
plucking the corpse of our entrance on a roadside.
            I take your face in my hands, say
brother, we are the bullet
            that ruptured.

you were born wailing,
                 says our father, his fists splintering.
our mother, twisting her wedding ring -- clinging.

mijo, your first minute of life alone
               was unbearable, she says, after he's bedded his rage.
you wouldn't let me hold you.

               brother, I have seen your mugshot
and the only gold you have is in your smile.
               don't you know there's a difference
between a grin and the teeth that bare it?
               I have dreamt of your fists falling on me
like rain passed through generations.
               I wake soaked and choking
in a mirror that only shows another boy
               on your hit-list.

               brother, how brave of you
to take your enemy by the throat.
               tell me, did you hear his neck snap?

              wailing, our father said, voices gaping
in the absence of words. is that how he sounded?
              your boy, your blood-lusted body?
in my head, his wounds open,
             yawning and raw, his grave-yard
slipping through my spread palms
             saying brother, brother.

how to fit your life
           in one sentence:
they pay for my bullets,
           that's the difference.