All week the news keeps newsing ...

...more mass shootings—

5 in Ohio, 

7 in Texas, 

4 in Michigan...

A chorus of promises rains down 

from our leaders

during their permanent rehearsals 

for action 

against guns stacked

in basements,

in night stands,

in shoe boxes...

 

And so it continues 

to rain guns with more 

rain tomorrow

and all of this year

and all of the next...

So that chorus of promises 

worries me here in my kitchen 

where my flowers wilt in fear. 

We feel insecure when 

every day five guys

or fifty 

go soggy

in puddles of blood.

I go to bed and the next morning

the news starts newsing. 

More bloody rain

on the porch,

on the dance floor, 

on the dead's stiff hands

stuck in the air. 

Even now 

the shooters’ anger prowls

around our streets,

waking up our dogs. 

They are not elsewhere,

they are everywhere and

I weep because nothing 

will stop them.  

I beg the editors,

mayors, cops 

and the whole chorus shakes

their heads

and they think about it 

every day

then once a week

then once a year.

The guns drag them

on leashes

to count casings, 

and they all howl

and their tongues thicken

with thoughts and prayers

as rifles point at our beds

squat on our sidewalks, 

enter our schools, 

invisible till 

they stand in our door.