And still they come, drums rolling, headlines parading across the page,
phones dinging at dawn, another
news cycle, Dear God, not again, pendulum of freedom swung too
far from our stalwart ancestors
who braved a tyrant, stoned a global Goliath then became colonizers
themselves—trained weapons
on first nation peoples, couldn’t walk a mile in their moccasins—history
reloading, repeating
down the brief New World timeline to the present, where so many of us
arm ourselves against the Other
that a plenitude of guns in pockets, purses, waistbands and nightstands
makes it second nature
to react to threats—concrete or imagined—to differences in skin tint, eye
fold, sexual preference,
god or gods worshipped, ballot boxes ticked, eliciting reptilian fear,
amygdala pouring stress
hormones into our systems, fight response cascading from brain to nerves
to fingers which itch to press
a trigger like we practiced at the shooting range, ignite gunpowder, propel
a projectile at our target,
any veil between instinct and action lifted, no chance for second thoughts,
for clemency, lives
snuffed out like candles at vigils where loved ones crumple, where
bouquets and teddy bears
line fences outside schools and synagogues and dance halls and mosques
again and again and again and again
