guns

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
-William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

We will never forget
I see those words splayed out
Across the front of a newspaper
As I leave the grocery store
Ten years ago, some nutjob
Thought it was a pretty good idea
To bring guns on campus
And then he thought it was a pretty good idea
To kill 32 people and himself
We will never forget, the newspaper promises
We will never forget the pain, the people who died
The monster who cut them down in cold blood
But when’s the last time the media’s been honest?
According to the President of the
United States of Fuzzy Troll Dolls
They lie all the time
But as much as I hate him with a passion
I have to agree this one time
We, as the public, forget
The shock and pain last for a few days after
(insert here)
Before another tragedy or
Celebrity scandal or
Dead gorilla
Captivates us beyond belief
In our eyes, faces become names
Names become numbers
Numbers become statistics
Statistics are then printed out and tucked
Neatly into some bureaucrat's folder
As she stands up
And demands that YES!
WE NEED MORE GUN CONTROL!
YES!
WE NEED FEWER GUNS ON THE STREET!
YES!
VIDEO GAMES CREATE KILLERS!
YES!
MY HUSBAND DID NOT HAVE SEX
WITH THAT WOMAN!
(Did I mention I hate her too?)
And all the while the cyclone of violence
And fear and hate that began with Klebold and Harris
Rages on and on and on and on
Like a carousel of death that keeps spinning
On and on and on and on
Flinging out corpses on every side
Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech
The carnival of cameras and microphones and
Burning questions that never end
Click, whir, click, whir,
Did you know your son was depressed?
Click, whir, click, whir
Did you know your son was suicidal?
Click, whir, click, whir
Did you even know your own son?
God, just make it stop
Please make it end
But I’m afraid that He has forsaken us
Since we now live in a world where
The bullets rain so thick
They block out the sun
Snuffing out the lives
Of 297 innocent people
And counting
We will never forget school shootings, the world promises
And yet we already have
As somewhere another gun is loaded
And a student pulls the trigger.