Half Mast - The neverending poem of this gun infected America

[purr-rat beauty]

There is no excuse
For us to wonder why flags are flying at half-mast
It is a stark reminder we must learn from the past
A past that has happened yesterday
And will certainly return today.

Living a daily deadly guessing game
Where masses extinguished without reason
We live daily in a hunting season
A past where there’s no other way
But to become hunter and prey

A past that protects the reality of carnage
And denies the many lives ripped apart
A past where we are trapped with an exhausted heart
A past that will tragically become another today
A past giving opportunity to those who want to slay

- me

[Walleye]

1. This is a little poem I wrote about an actual news story I covered for the paper

Murder on LaMotte Street
Across the dark, deep River
The rest of the city has never been.
There’s a young man in a wheelchair
With his 45 caliber friend

The reason he’s stuck in that chair
Is on account of being shot
Just a year ago
At the corner of Murder and LaMotte.

Now I just like before,
The bang bangs, The pop pops.
Now just like before,
LaMotte Street is full of cops.

And an old black wicker wheelchair,
Is lying on its side
In a pool of blood that’s big enough,
You know somebody died.

That poem appeared in my head when I witnessed the aftermath, having covered the murder of the year before as well. This is the first time I’ve really written it down.

Your poem really speaks to me. It’s the palpable frustration. I think the right wing won’t be happy until we are as angry and hate-filled as they are.

Thanks for the poem

[purr-rat beauty]

2. I am sorry you were witness to that - but grateful you can speak to it's violent truth

so many people burying their heads in the spent shells

thank you for reading, I wrote my poem many years ago, revised and finally shared following Uvalde, such horrific tragedy is so very unnecessary....and STILL it happens every time we blink.