Poets Respond to the Uvalde Tragedy, Part 14
ANYWAY
By RUDI HARST
Holding your smartphone in hand
feeling the pull of all the voices demanding to be heard.
all the choices that need to be made
A few moments later a news bulletin flashes:
another teenage shooter on a rampage
with a lethal gun
Not far from where you sit
in stunned disbelief.
Good grief! Not Again!
Nineteen young students dead,
their tender bodies
Filled with lead
from perfectly legal bullets
fired from a perfectly legal gun
by a perfectly enabled teen, drowning in his own rage,
with perfectly legal permission to buy the deadly assault rifle
the day after he turned eighteen
which has been deemed to be the perfect age to buy killer machines
to help protect our democracy.
This latest outrageous bout of suffering crawls off the screen
and into your throat, threatening to lodge in your heart and
take away your faith in… us, the people.
Grab faith anyway, in both your hands!
You sit down to meditate, to get calm and centered
while a flashing storm crashes through your brain
full of darkly imaged outcomes,
threatening to drown out the still small voice of love.
Grab love anyway! Grab Love before it slips away.
Thanks, Rudi, for the reminder to always hold on to Love.
Never let go of its hand.
Thanks for taking time to respond to my words, and extend your hand across cyberspace in return, Mike