Roberta Hatcher: Early Days
Into the sudden quiet—
riotous flowers and birds,
wildlife in streets and backyards.
Had they always been there,
hidden behind our busyness
and the noise of our machines?
Jim Daniels: Ghost Guns
Plush Jesus dolls scattered
on the picked-over discount table
at the dollar store
Brett Wilkins: The ‘Bigoted Conspiracy Caucus’ in US Congress
“Invasion and great replacement theory rhetoric, both deeply rooted in white nationalist and antisemitic tropes, are no longer a bug on the Hill, they are a regular feature,” said one campaigner.
Kathy Fish: Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
Humans in the wild, gathered and feeling good, previously an exhilaration, now: a target.
Abby Zimet: Kids Are Begging, Begging, Begging For Their Lives
The shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, which killed three kids and three adults, was one of 103 mass shootings already recorded this year; of those, 90 were school shootings.
Abby Zimet: Please Hurry, There’s A Lot of Dead Bodies. This Is Not Normal
Today in America, “The number one killer of children is guns.”
Nancy Krygowski: “Here’s a Partial List of Mass Shootings in the United States So Far This Year”
Here’s the full list of the people the murdered have kissed.
Here’s a pair of slippers made of birds’ beaks, ear plugs made of screams.
Fred Everett Maus: Listening to Bach, Three Days after a Shooting
It’s quiet in the room where I am writing.
Bright afternoon sun flows in, oblique,
glorious light in these days of mourning,
perfection pouring down on a shattered world.
Valarie Kaur: Forgiveness
Forgiveness was not a substitute for justice; it had energized us in the
fight for justice.
Matthew J. Parker: MMPI-5
It’s obvious to all (or damn well should be) that the background checks designed to prevent criminals and/or deeply disturbed individuals from purchasing weapons are pathetically deficient.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Scientists and Public Health Professionals Are Mobilizing Against Gun Violence
A report this spring by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health University said the nation has lost 1,357,000 victims to firearms in the last 40 years. That exceeds the number of soldiers killed in all the wars in which the United States has fought.
Anne C. Fowler: Talking with the Other
The opportunity to spend vast expanses of time talking with people with whom you strongly disagree, about the very issue you disagree on, is an unusual privilege, I would even say, a luxury.
Andrea Germanos: 4th Grader Who Survived Uvalde Massacre Testifies How Shooter Told Teacher ‘Good Night’ Before Killing Her
Asked if she thought such a shooting was going to happen again at her school, Miah Cerrillo quietly nodded her head.
