An AR-15 fires.

The tiny bullet
Traveling 3000 feet per second
Enters the body
Explodes into a million pieces
Blasts shrapnel everywhere
Before ripping an exit wound
The size of a fist
Through flesh and bone.

This is what the NRA wishes for our children.
This is what the NRA buys for our children.

Every day
Insanity after insanity
I begin to doubt the obvious
Perhaps the insanity is mine.

Every day
The news breaks
And breaks
And breaks again
Like waves crashing the shore
Leveling the sand to concrete
Until the pounding surf
No longer leaves a mark.

Every day
Insanity after insanity
Will I let myself be hardened
Unmarked by shock and grief?

Every day
The news assaults my consciousness
Explodes inside my brain
Rains shrapnel down inside my chest
Piercing my heart.

What for me is metaphor
Is for 17 in Parkland
And 58 in Las Vegas
And 13 in Columbine
And 26 in Sandy Hook
Simply
death.

And with each death
A tiny bullet
explodes on contact
Shredding the world of a life cut short
Leaving raw wounds everywhere

On the horizon
An army of men in dark suits
Moving forward in lock step
Flags on their lapels
Money in their pockets
Carrying bags of salt.

Debra Rose Brillati
February 2018