BANG!
Consequences
the balance of one’s life
their alpha and their omega
shattered between the
silence of pre-meditated thought
and five pounds of pressure
BANG!
Consequences
lives shattered between the silence of humanitarian love
and the megaphone of displaced hate
disrupting the balance
like a stillborn life that never gets a chance to smile
or
like a baby’s first cry before the umbilical cord is cut
BANG!
Consequences
that moment when aluminum, steel or even plastic
composed of four groups
all lined up
like children waiting against the wall
for instructions from their teacher for recess or lunch
or to make the next headline news
yes that moment when
the frame group
the cylinder, extractor, and the crane group
the barrel and the sight group
the trigger, timing hand, and hammer group
CLICK CLICK
BANG!
Consequences
intended to steal, kill and destroy
the life of another
to shatter a family
to stunt a legacy
to dismantle a community
to etch an indelible memory in the storybook of America
BANG!
Consequences
the balance of life is interrupted y’all
unless
unless
unless
the moment
before
CLICK CLICK BANG!
becomes
a step back moment
a humanity matters moment
a reconsideration of applying the pressure moment
a lifting of the finger from the trigger moment
to preserve
and not destroy
the balance of life
……….
This poem was inspired at the June 2018 Poetry Writing Group Meeting; we were tasked with thinking of something we valued (I chose “balance”) and something in the headline news that we could use the value chosen to speak to, to give life to. (I decided to use the balance of life to speak to gun violence in schools.)