The Dogs of Hunger

The winter starved cold (the kind of winter night that freezes the face twisted. the kind that ices the heart) and the boys fought to quiet their stomachs--- growling like dogs in the dark-- when Jimmy handed Tyree something cold and heavy like power and Tyree skated his eyes down the moon-slicked barrel, the weight so heavy in his small hungry palm, Tyree needed two hands to steady it; to steady his own heartbeat (now there are too many hands in his life, but none of them steady his guilt)