Chalk tallies on the board
Chalk outlines on the floor
The grisly math
13+9+5+32+5+7+27+6+4+9+17+10+4+21.
Doesn’t add up
The sum
Is more than we can bear.
The right to bear arms
Is the sum of us.
The second is the first
King of the Republic
Its assassins' sight set on us.
The scope of history
Nowhere to hide
When you’re always within range.
A dark theater
Will not conceal you
A church, mosque, synagogue
Hell on Earth
When the symbol of your religion
Is a crosshair.
Every school
A target
And all we have
Are words
Thoughts and prayers —
Blanks
Aimed at guns
Themselves wrapped in Kevlar and cowardice,
The latter,
Bulletproof.
The same lesson
Taught every year
A subject we know
But still fail the test.
And so the tally marks grow
The chalk outline
Drawn around a body
Its shape
A nation.
