Vox Populi
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Arlene Weiner: Only One Dead
So no banner headline. Thirty-six in Thailand,
most children, led the news. Our son
in Tucson warned us we’d read
about a professor killed in his office,
shot by a former student.
Ben was at the university, but nowhere near.
He said that what disturbed him most
was that the campus was almost undisturbed.
The scary thing to me is that I feel
people barely react to this stuff,
if they weren’t directly touched.
Here’s where I might soar,
find a metaphor, but the repetition
is the rhyme. Every time. This time,
only one dead, routine, no claim
on thoughts and prayers.
Copyright 2024 Arlene Weiner
Arlene Weiner’s most recent poetry collection is More (Ragged Sky, 2022). She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Nailed it, sadly.
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Yes, sadly.
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We become deadened, numb in a culture awash with guns. We think, at least it’s only one. Then Gaza happens and we awaken to mass slaughter, at least some do, enough to protest a genocide.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Words ringing with a sad truth.
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Exactly so. The precision of her language is devastating.
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