we are all sandy hook in poetry

There’s nothing more toxic to the progress of a civil society
than the idea we can just opt-out of it
hiding behind weapons faith or loopholes
that we can take the benefits we received
from the infrastructure of the shared project society
hoard the successes that we perceive
then take our ball and go home
backing away as we brandish a fucking bazooka
or whatever.

Arming ourselves is the ultimate
self-defeating declaration of hopelessness
that our situation is fundamentally untenable
that it’s all a matter of time before the curtain drops
before all the roads and schools and hopes and dreams
and safety nets and firemen and philosophy
crumbles and we just start shooting each other
until we’re just serfs and kings again
struggling over dust.
I do not believe that.

If we want a future,
there are things we need to let go of and
the illusions of short-term safety that
actually create more danger long-term
like refusing a vaccination because
you think it will do hibbity-jibbity to you and
then people start dying of measles all over town
we need to have the strength to let go.
We need to have the compassion to let go.
We need to have the vision to let go.
We need the courage.
The real courage.

Not the kind of courage that comes
in a murder-button you can hold in your pocket
but the kind of courage that believes
there’s still a future to have
there’s still a future worth having
the kind of future worth
letting our defenses down
so the killing can stop.

We are all Sandy Hook
we are all San Bernadino
we are all a long list of places and names
that need to stop growing as a fucking list.
We’ve got to stop hiding if we want things to change
that’s just how it is.

We’ve got to let out defenses down
if we want any hope we might live.
In any way that matters.