Extremes

While we sit and point fingers at each other

Over whose fault 

Mass shootings are

 

Can we start by addressing the extremes

 

Can we make space to rethink different beliefs 

and go from 

If you believe differently than me you are wrong to

If you believe differently than me then just maybe

You’ve had a different experience

And I’m curious to hear what that is

 

Can mental health advocates, gun advocates, and anti-hate advocates find common ground

 

Wherever our views fall

On these complicated issues

Can we agree that

 

Most people with mental health issues are not murderers*

 

Most gun owners are not murderers** 

 

And whether it’s born into people

Or groomed and grown

Hatred is not welcome here 

Holy hate included

 

Can we acknowledge

That danger grows unchecked and fastest

At mental health, gun ownership, and hatred’s 

Extreme edges 

 

That the waters get murky 

When we talk about

 

The plight of un-hospitalized people with psychosis who need help but can’t get admitted

 

Who can own Assault Rifles, and if it’s everyone, how young is too young

 

The otherwise mentally stable people living among us who are steeped in hatred

 

Can we start on the fringes 

 

Expand mental health treatment 

For those begging for care

 

Pause gun ownership 

For those who the majority 

On both sides agree 

Shouldn’t own one

 

Pilot reasonable changes 

On both edges of fringe 

And see if there is any improvement

 

And however many guns we own

Whatever our mental status 

Can we decide that 

Hatred doesn’t serve us

 

Can we disagree with each other

Rather than demolish each other

 

This problem

We can’t seem 

To agree on

 

Keeps changing

All of our lives

For the worse

 

So please can we start

Please can we do something

 

Because if we don’t start somewhere

 

This thing

That none of us wants

Won’t end

 

But sadly

Many more lives

Will

 

 

*There are currently 50 million Americans taking

   medications for mental health issues (and 

   100K first cases of psychosis each year)

**Americans own an estimated 20 million Assault

    Rifles which are part of the 393 million guns 

    overall owned by Americans

 

 

To The Person Who Might Active Shoot Me Someday

How

Are you

Today

 

What thoughts

Fill you mind

In these days, months, years maybe

Before the day 

You will kill me

 

Were you born enraged

Already angry

At anything

Everything

 

Or have the beginnings of hatred

Just begun

To creep up

In you

 

Have you noticed 

Within you yet

Signs of confusion or paranoia

Or is that still

On the horizon 

 

Could anything 

Have helped

Dissipate the hate

In your soul

 

Was there a treatment

Not sought

That could have brought

Relief to your mind

 

Have you thought yet

About buying a gun

 

Or are you still researching 

The best way to get one

 

Or do you already own one 

Or maybe several

 

Were they hard to get

 

Were you taught to shoot young

Or did you learn from Google

Or video games

 

Do you already have a plan

 

Have you cased the location 

Where my life will end

 

Have you played the scene through

In your mind

 

What do you feel when you do

 

Do you wonder how I am today

What I think about

 

Do you wonder 

If I’m angry

 

If I’m wild minded 

 

If I own a gun

 

If I too want more from life 

Than it’s given me

I do, by the way

 

Are you planning this

Because you hate 

Something I represent

 

Or because you believe

Death is a better option 

Than life

For all 

 

Do you see yet

The irony

 

That strangers

Whose paths cross for one day

 

Will forever

Be connected in history

 

Will forever share 

The same death date

 

I’m sorry about the hate in your heart 

 

I’m sorry about the brokenness in your mind

 

And whether your actions

Are rooted in hatred or brokenness

 

I’m sorry

You had access

To a gun

 

This is 

A battle

I cannot win

 

I can’t stop

A hatred that deep

An illness that acute 

A system that enmeshed

 

So I will spend 

My days left here

Soaking up happiness

Where ever I can 

 

Yet forever wondering

Where are you today

And is there anything that can be done

To help you

To heal you 

To alter the path you’re on

 

So that it never

Crosses mine

If It Happens Here

If it happens here
And I find myself
In an unthinkable circumstance
 
Wounded
Survival unlikely
Unable to escape

My plan is very clear

I will look around me

I will lay down beside
Those who are not able
To move

I will make sure
That no one within my reach
Dies alone

Make sure the last thing they feel
Is an arm around them
Words of peace in their ears
 
Sure you can take my sense of safety

You can take my hopes for peace

You can take even my life

But you cannot take
My humanity

And if you leave in me
Any life at all

I’m going to give
The very last of it away

As a reminder
Of what most people
Are made of

Shots Fired

Shots fired
Randomly
With intent
 
To end the lives
Of those hit

To deeply wound
The lives
Of witnesses and loved ones
Who remain

Souls lost
Instantly
Resting now
In a peace
The shooter
Did not know

And what peace
Can there be
For those
Who remain
 
In a world stripped
Of the illusion
Of protection
 
No answers from me
Just the question
 
What peace
 
How peace
 
And if we
Find the path
To peace
Once again

Could we show
Each other
The way 

Accounted For

Relieved faces
Talking on phones
Thank God you are Ok
All loved ones accounted for
This type of call
Overheard all day
That day

But somewhere

Faces were not relieved
People were not Ok
Loved ones did not return calls
This scene
Played out less frequently
That day

The relief of

Thank God that wasn’t me
I couldn’t go on if…
A luxury
Not afforded over
200 families
Who have to go on despite…

Same God
Same world
Same humanity 

Made up of some

Whose questions ended
The moment all loved ones
Were accounted for

And others

With horrifically accounted for loved ones
Whose questions
Have just begun