let the kids live (for alan) in poetry

what it all comes down to is
we’re only a few thousand years out of the caves
we are only a few thousand years out of the trees
all of us, from the veld of the great rift valley, from which we all flow
we are not… evolved enough to handle the ability to kill twenty people
in a blink
without thinking
we’re not

never again

all it takes it one bad mood
then a horrible slaughter that we can never take back
maybe with a lot of training
and over-sight
and licensing
maybe some of us can handle a single-shot thing
like The Founders were talking about us having
in the context of a well-regulated militia
I don’t think so
recent history seems to suggest that no one can handle it
but we can at least talk about that
we should damned well have more trouble buying even those
than buying cold medicine at the CVS but Jesus Christ
we aren’t evolved enough for that terrifying power and
if you LIKE that kind of terrifying awful power to kill
you are absolutely not healthy enough to hold it in your hands
it is a sickness and it’s killing us

never again

why on Earth would you want the power to kill another human being?
that fear, that pain, that corruption, why would you want it?
if you are so paranoid that someone is coming to kill you
it’s because so many crazy people are allowed
instant murder buttons in their pockets
we don’t fix it with more
we fix it with less
we fix it when you choose love over fear and disarm
disarm disarm disarm

never again

old pieces of paper don’t make it right
your paranoid delusions don’t make it right
your fears manufactured by the death industry
to make you buy more death buttons don’t make it right
you make it right by choosing love over fear
you make it right when you disarm
disarm disarm disarm

never again

we are not smart or sane or subtle enough to handle that kind of
terrible awful sickening vicious blood-slicked responsibility
if you want that burden
if you lust for that grotesque power
if you ache for mastery over who lives and who dies
you aren’t either
that’s on you not on us
it’s not on those kids marching in Florida
it’s on you
seek help

never again

if you are that sick and need it
that gut-curdling disgusting abhorrent twisted power
join the National Guard
like the Founders said those things were needed for
and let those beautiful children stand up for themselves
for Christ’s sake, they are smarter and saner than you
they’re smarter and saner than I am too
they’re smart enough to not want guns at all
maybe those kids are that next evolutionary step
we were waiting for all along

never again
choose love over fear and then
never again