Laid bare in America

The unbearable truth and consequences of inaction

Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

Tell us, children,
what you’d like to learn
when it’s safe
to school in America.

Our nation has failed you,
disdaining the pain of lessons past
and recasting attacks
that leave lasting adverse impacts
on childhood happiness.
We’re hoping for change soon
that outlasts
the capacity of
social outcasts
to pass their wrath
onto another classroom.

Tell us, citizens,
how we might shake free
from a state of fear
and division.

Certainly murder sprees
aren’t in your vision
of American
exceptionalism,
a deadly and daily attrition
conditioned by
practiced patricians who
hand-wring or hamstring
when faced with
such weighty decisions.

Tell us, Congress,
how you allow this
sinister, stoppable
lawlessness to persist.

Is misdirection
your best interpretation
of the Constitution?
Where is your courage
to stop the carnage?
With some strokes of a pen
you could end the heartrending
trend of endemic violence.
Or is something predictably
pocket-padding behind your
callous curriculum?

Tell us, common sense,
where we find wisdom
in a system beset by
defensiveness, not defense.

How is it that the so-called
hallowed halls
mostly echo the hollow
thoughts and prayers
of legislative players
who have power over policy?
What kind of coward
puts deflection before protection
of our nation’s children?
Now is the hour
to stop the slack-action,
dual-faction,
flak jacket politics.
These capital crimes
call for Capitol lines —
a fix for all flawed laws
toward a less fearful future.