Tragedy in Loco Parentis

it becomes a shorthand

a savage synecdoche

for which we have no synonyms

except blood nightmare shred death 

and sinews of sadness singing

an aria without words or melody

 

a broken record

 

Columbine Cleveland Chardon

Red Lake Nickel Mines (Amish)

 

they become a shorthand

these slaughters that stream

one into the other flooding

our jaded memories

Sandy Hook Parkland 

Santa Fe (Texas) Oxford (Township)

Uvalde (now) (this) (again) (AR-15) (again) (kids) (children) (innocents) (once) (again) (thoughts and prayers) (makeshift memorials) (flowers flowers flowers) (teddy bears) (magazines) (again) (clips) (bullets) (this) (now again)

[silence]

sobs cries wails sobs screams cries sobs

[silence]

. . . and then the inevitable onslaught of cliches promises jingoism flag-waving theories speculations loner angry boy boy boy male man young troubled loner rage pent-up why why why NRA July 4 lobbyists money money money marketing male rage against the what the who my rights my rights my rights protect me from me the land of the free

except for the cost

the incalculable cost

[silence]

[  ]

[ . . . ]

Memorial Day

CONCEALED CARRY CLASS

The ad read: "CONCEALED CARRY CLASS Permit Honored in 34+ States."

Inevitably, I have some questions:

1. If you carry yourself with class, why conceal it? (That's a bit of humor intended for English majors, editors, journalists, and punctuation geeks.)
2. Why 34+ states? Do they mean 35? Or 49 or 50 or a specific number between 35 and 50? What about Guam?
3. Is an EXPOSED-CARRY CLASS offered?
4. What elements of CONCEAL does the class address (clothing, self-induced injury, shape, protuberance, obfuscation, syntax, diction, angle, lighting, smell, subterfuge, camouflage, foreign languages, winking, vernacular, twitches, tics)?
5. What aspects of CLASS does the class address (wealth, culture, race, diction, syntax, carriage, manners, mien, gait, accent, clothing, squareness of jaw)?