Everyone around me‘s the same

Wake up go to work eat drink sleep

Wake up go go work eat drink fuck

Go to work eat drink fuck and smoke

 

I grew in a neighborhood that values tradition

Man go work

Women stay home

Women care for kids

Man bring money

Women cook food

 

This is how I am

This is all I knew

This is all my neighborhood knew

So why would I think different?

 

This was a great life

I stood my ground

I worked

I follow the rules

I drank with my friend

Every fucking night

 

Then something happened

My friend died

He was killed on September 11

It was something about ISIS people

They hate us

They need to die

 

Something changed in me

I had to make a difference

I went around looking for every person I saw

That looked Muslim

And shot them

 

I visited all the 7/11s 

And succeeded

For the most part

 

There was one man though

Who I shot in the head

And he didn’t completely die

Fuck, I hit the ground low

 

He told the police who I was

They even got me on the security tapes

Shit, I was fucked

 

I am on death row

They said most of them weren’t even Muslim

I thought all Indian looking people was Muslim

I thought all Muslim was ISIS

What the fuck did I do

 

This man visited me on my death bed

I was expecting him to give me a death threat

But he forgave me

 

He forgave me for shooting him in the head

He cried and for my death he plead

He fought for me even though I damaged him

He believed that I was just full of sin

 

He believed that I needed to be saved

He did not want to see me in my grave

I cried and apologized for all my mistakes

I wish I was taught but I wish I was not caught

 

-based on a true story from The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas