I don’t want to be numb.

Crying, screaming, pleading-
for-their-barely-begun-lives
little kids bleeding out,
shot to death
in supposed safe places
where they go to learn
how to behave
in a fictitious civil society.

But I think I am—

from reading dismissive thoughts,
bullshit prayers. If not numb
to slaughtered innocents, numb
to grotesque rhetoric spouted
by pedantic hate mongers
who console the unaffected
with comfortable delusions of fear
like lullabies.

America needs personal assault weapons

like Texas pre-teens need holes
in their heads instead of Sex Ed.,
like an educated population
needs broadcast baboons
expounding racist replacement
theories to the gullible and afraid.

If the mentally ill must be blamed—

give them health care.
Educate away fanaticism.
Don’t wag Boomer jowls,
repeat the trite catchphrase,
“Guns don’t kill, people do.”
Call a doctor, Congress.
Request this prescription:
Healthcare and Education
in heavy doses.