Are the Kids Really OK? | Jane Vogel

And Another School…

It’s about the doorways.
Notebooks weeping blood,
gun-shattered glass still glitters on the floor
while responders sort bullet wounds
for signs of life.

Outside, the politicians cry:
Doorways have no standards.
Just a push, or a key, anyone
comes in or out. We need door control.
Outside, the politicians cry
for metal bars with bells and alarms.
Cover them with glitter and painted smiley owls.
Hang a paper ostrich under the security camera
with a happy “Welcome,” so they forget
what the ostrich does not want to see.
Uniforms will grant entry and exit
only for permitted guns.
The children must stay behind glass and bars.
The children must stay silent.

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Postcards from the Second Amendment

i
Wearing flags printed on shirts,
they wave guns. Betsy Ross
never imagined. Not enough stars
for all the dead in a mall 
today, not enough thread
to put them back together.

ii
Rock. Paper. Scissors. Two kids,
their hands second-
guessing each other
on a side street sidewalk,
split-second win-lose
with replays. The second
game: different time. Two kids
their hands second-guessing
each other in a split-
second. No replays
in the second game.

iii
Baby Jesus sleeps soundly in the Christmas
photo this year because mother holds
an automatic rifle above the creche. Three
wise boys flash smiles next to fat, black
barrels. ‘Tis the season of the second 
amendment Seasons Greetings!
Thoughts and Prayers! Meanwhile,
the Little Drummer Boy takes cover
and locks the stable door.

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Bullet-Speed

My brother was four.
The gun, disassembled, packed.
Found it. Fixed it. Bang.

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©2023 Jane Vogel
All rights reserved

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