Problem (Poetry)
Problem
Words by Rowanna Abenttis
Gun is a dirty word, synonymous with death
synonymous with bars, metallic, clinking, and unyielding,
Irreversible twitch of the hand, promise silenced and justified
by a culture that wants to see me extinguished.
With a collective sigh,
The ancestors shrug.
School on shutdown, fear breathes
under desks and in coat closets.
They say he is ill and had no friends,
anti-social behavior and divorce at home
How real he seems, a victim himself.
Black gun, purified by white hands.
Tragedy. Change skins to melanin,
This gun does not belong to him,
Turn the barrel to his temple,
The natural order of things.
With a collective sigh,
The ancestors shrug.
Mother cried into her pillow, her firstborn stolen.
Flowers piled up, brown and sour.
No one can stomach the gravelly grief in her voice.
No one can find the balm to soothe her.
Now her nephew's teacher has a gun.
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