Poets Respond to the Uvalde Tragedy, Part 12

UVALDE

By SARA BROWNE PARSONS

We don’t want to hear it but can’t look away.
We’re too close to this gut-wrenching loss.
We refuse to accept what is,
and want to pretend it’s not.

We believe we’re better.
We know we’re not.
Arm anybody, arm everybody
we hand out assault weapons all around.

We hate this incident
but we embrace “the cause.”
We elect them again and again,
these second amendment distorters.

Don’t look now
it’s just happened in Tulsa.
We won’t look now
because the one with the gun is us.

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