THE WAR AGAINST ITSELF (weekly poem)

THE WAR AGAINST ITSELF

The Orlando Shooting brings the total of Americans

shot in gun crime in the last fifty year to 1.5 million;

more people killed than in all its wars put together.

The Constitution of that land,

The good ole U.S.A.,

Will guarantee guns won’t be banned,

On any future day;

As such Amendment would be panned,

In every single way.

The President will have a plan,

He’ll say a prayer to God,

But doing something? No way man!

That really is too odd;

It’s something you’d put down the can, (1)

Like stuff in which you’ve trod.

The N.R.A. will still declare, (2)

You’re safer with a gun,

From Florida to Delaware,

Such is the garbage spun;

And most Americans will swear,

It’s better owning one.

To bear arms is one of those rights,

For which they’d rather die,

Supposedly for future fights, (3)

To keep their powder dry;

But gun death has them in its sights,

And they still wonder why.

(1) North American informal: the toilet.

(2) The National Rifle Association.

(3) The right to bear arms is simply for the

purpose of forming a Militia to defend the State.

© Richard Layton