November 6, 2017

Before they change the rules, qualify to carry a gun legally *

The church pews are empty now, save for the cleaning crew,
whose grim task will likely leave them stained forever. And how will the pastor
fare, the one who'd traveled out of town but whose daughter is now
among the dead? Or the pair of siblings huddling in a hospital corridor, 
left to navigate their sudden, inexplicable orphanage? "Let us keep praying,"
someone urges a dazed audience, already so inundated by terror they
hear "praying" as "paying," as men in suits and rifles swarm the Capitol, pretending
it is still 1791. Somewhere, a boy grows intoxicated with weaponry,
aiming a crooked branch at his brother, his finger curled around a knot of bark, 
and I'm hoping their mother will call them inside before it begins to get dark.

* This was the subject line of a spam email I received two days after the Sutherland Springs, TX massacre.