On Violence

Upon Hearing of Shots Fired at a Texas College on 1/22/13

Is this a once-a-month thing now?

Once media frenzy has died down from the last time,

it’s apparently time for more people to do the same.

Then we get Breaking News!

X people shot at Y school/mall/theater/bus in Z city!

Is that the problem—

that we all have not yet turned

off our TVs? and

Broken.

The.

News!

YouTube is not notorious enough,

and reality TV has completely lost touch

with reality,

so now any Joker with a flak jacket

and enough guns

feels the need to put a new spin on Survivor.

Any world cosmopolitan could wonder,

tracking international headlines,

if America has turned away

from Bonds, A-Rod, and Giambi;

full of steroidal rage

to take up a new national pastime.

And yet, is it so new?

Men have long conquered as death--

bringers since before the gladiators
commanded arenas in Rome.

Now in the age of

Soldier of Fortune,

boys are invited to play

the game.

But in what kind of game
are movements of bullets

played on a gameboard of children?

The Ending

This is the way America ends.

This is the way America ends.

This is the way America ends...

With a “bang” that murders its future.