Our Thoughts and Prayers

The Tec-9 is fast and light, proved itself
at Columbine.
        (our thoughts and prayers are )
The Glock’s another make will do you well:
Red Lake 10, 27 Sandy Hook, 32 V. Tech;
others too I bet—950 more schools
shot up since sunset on that Newton day
        (when our thoughts and prayers )
the Pulse nightclub: a Sig Sauer MCX
dispatched 49
(for whom our thoughts and prayers).
Shotguns too, of course, sawn-off or not:
10 in Santa Fe on May 18/18—one of ten
that year of thoughtfulness and many prayers.
And then, of course, the AR-15, AK-47,
few better at sending souls to heaven
        (along with lots of thoughts and prayers).
Citizens do not “bear arms”; soldiers—perhaps
a “well-regulated Militia” —bear arms, the rest of us
just carry guns and muster grief.
In semi-automatic no-time flat
Tops Market, Buffalo, a Bushmaster XM-15,
a favorite weapon in Iraq, but this time
10 Americans qualified for our ( all that )
Uvalde elementary where
a DDM4 took 21; 19 kids unaware
a boy’s right to buy guns,
bled away their right to life,
and too dead now to care about
our muzzled thoughts and busted prayers.

About the Poem

This is a topical poem about mass shootings in America.

About the Author

Ian Kennedy has published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. He is retired and lives in Naples, Florida.

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