El Paso.
Virginia Beach.
Las Vegas.
“Home grown.”
“White supremacist.”
“Lone wolf.”
Note: complete
absence
of a well-regulated
militia.
Sutherland Springs.
Fort Hood.
San Bernardino.
Positive thoughts
do nothing
to bring
those children
back from
the grave,
pick up the
shattered pieces
of communities
left in the wake –
Parkland.
Miami.
Blacksburg.
Hollow prayers
will never
heal the wounds
of a nation
so deep
that we fight
to the death
over a 1791 text.
Orlando.
Aurora.
Sandy Hook.
But they say
“Ra! Ra! America!”
and you say
“Ra! Ra! America!”
“America!”
“America!”
Columbine.
Tree of Life.
Santa Fe.
America, America,
Where are you
my beautiful
America?
Dayton.
Roseburg.
Charleston.
The river of blood
runs deep
through your
fruited plains –
Red Lake.
Jacksonville.
Appomattox.
America, America,
I want you back,
my dear America.
Southaven.
Poway.
Gilroy.
Policy makers:
this cannot be
our America!
Fifty-eight dead.
Thirteen dead.
Twenty dead.
America,
these people
deserve better.
Seventeen dead.
Forty-nine dead.
Eleven dead.
America,
you deserve
better.