We Can't...

 

Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, David Frum, The Atlantic

© May 24, 2022, the Griot Poet

 

“Schools scared to death.

The truth is, one education under desks,

Stooped low from bullets;

That plunge when we ask

Where our children

Shall live

& how

& if”

Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Poet’s tweet

 

I just got back from my granddaughter’s dance recital,

She did what looked like the funky chicken to “Here Comes the Sun,”

In Austin, Texas,

It was innocent, uplifting, and precious.

 

Eighty-five miles outside of San Antonio,

Nineteen kids and two teachers were murdered in Uvalde, Texas,

 

Senator Chris Murphy is full of PTSD from Sandy Hook,

“Cancun Cruz” tweets “thoughts and prayers” and arm more teachers,

Uvalde has the greeting “Bienevidos”: welcome,

On the entry sign, the shooter saw,

 

Cancun: how do I protect my granddaughter?

 

Do you [REALLY] want me in your office?

 

Does it have to hit your exclusive Cul de Sac,

Until you [actually] give a shit?

 

Your NAME is Theodore Raphael Cruz, Junior,

You are the child of a Cuban immigrant,

Fleeing Fidel Castro,

Born in Canada,

Qualified to run for office,

Because your mother was a citizen,

(Just like President Obama's),

You’re just as brown as those babies in Uvalde, Texas,

Stop fronting; you brown Anglo-Saxon!

 

They have guns in Canada,

But no mass shootings ten days apart,

Seventy percent of licensed gun owners,

Are a-okay with stricter background checks,

 

You’re a sadomasochist,

If your instinctive reaction,

Is to quote gun industry talking points,

Shrug, and go to your next fundraiser,

 

This ghoul-ism should have stopped with Columbine,

 

America is a death cult,

The only thing exceptional is its willingness,

To stomach a high body count,

 

My grandbaby was born into a pandemic,

She has masks fashion-coordinated,

When she gets to elementary school,

She’s going to be introduced

To active shooter drills,

 

Like Chris Murphy,

Spare me your bullshit,

About mental illness,

 

Like Coach Steve Kerr,

HR8 for background checks was passed by the House TWO YEARS ago,

Held up by Moscow Mitch and the antebellum filibuster,

 

We’re eleven people from universal background checks,

The only checks Republicans care about are from Smith and Wesson,

We have liability insurance to drive automobiles,

Why not for the idiots who need an arsenal of semiautomatics?

 

This shooting is the WORST In Texas history.

The NRA: not responsible anytime - are having a meeting,

May 27, Friday in Houston, Texas,

Cancer Cruz will probably give a keynote address,

Cornyn has a “scheduling conflict.”

 

We are the antithesis of John Donne’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls,”

We’re not “a piece of the harbor,”

“A part of the main,”

We’re an island among similar industrialized nations,

The number one way for a child to die in America is by gunfire,

We’re utterly alone.

 

El Paso, Waco, the UT sniper,

Twenty-six angels in Sandy Hook,

Now, angels have taken flight in Uvalde, Texas,

Texas passed a bill so that ANYONE can walk around with a gun,

Without training or licensure,

You need training wheels to ride a bike,

A learner’s permit to get behind a steering wheel,

Texas LAW enforcement was against this,

31,000 that would have been caught with a background check,

Freeing psychopaths to arm themselves,

Gregg Abbott still passed it.

You can’t pass up a chance to “own the libs,”

A fresh check from the NRA hot in his pocket,

No chance of duck and cover at the Governor’s mansion,

Or Cancun Cruz’s Cul de Sac,

 

We can’t keep doing this!

 

I don’t need your throwaway “thoughts and prayers” bullshit,

We’re not going to be a functional society,

When there are NO safe places for humans to be in,

See how “free market capitalism” works then!

The Assault Weapons ban from 1995 to 2005,

It was allowed to EXPIRE

By George W. Bush,

Bloodbath payback to the gun lobby,

Australia solved the issue in Port Arthur in 1996,

And haven’t had a mass shooting since,

 

Other countries were on lockdown during the pandemic,

Other countries have mental health issues,

Other countries were in Zoom classroom meetings,

Other countries have young, impressionable men,

Other countries don’t have this amount of slaughtering,

 

Roe vs. Wade and “right to privacy” is on the chopping block,

 

We have an election in November,

We need a bigger share of sanity in the Senate and Congress,

 

Nancy Pelosi needs a supermajority,

Chuck Schumer needs a 62-38 Senate,

So Manchin, Sinema, and the archaic filibuster are rendered irrelevant,

And we can investigate Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh,

 

We need useless lawmakers, unemployed, and insignificant,

We can’t trust these psychopaths with total power again:

VOTE!