[Newspoetry] Senseless Violence Double-Sonnet
Paul Kotheimer
herringb at prairienet.org
Wed Mar 1 20:32:09 CST 2000
hey Joe and y'all
[please let this version replace the single-sonnet version i submitted
about an hour ago, unless someone thinks it's better the previous way]
For seven working days, I've been a sub
in Mrs. Campbell's kindergarten class.
We read. We play. They fight. I intervene.
I wipe their noses when they're finished crying.
I hold their hands and walk them to the bus.
I make three hundred twenty-five a week,
before the I. R. S., if I get called--
no benefits and no vacation pay--
a halfway-decent gig, but "women's work,"
i.e., far too important to pay well.
I love the kids and know them each by name,
by aptitude, by personality.
I know that they are good, and tell them so...
I come home tired and open up the _Trib'_.
The headline reads: "BOY, 6, ACCUSED IN KILLING."
--The dead girl's wide-eyed thin-line almost-grin.
(I know which words she might know how to spell.)
Moms praying, desperate, in the parking lot--
"...The victim had yelled at 'BOY, 6,' for spitting,
a classmate told Associated Press.
Authorities, though, claim it isn't true..."
It could so easily have been our school.
I've only seen a gun strapped to a cop,
or on TV. I've never heard one fired.
I cannot say it will not happen here.
I fear the kind of grief which rips whole lives
asunder. I fear pain and blood and death
and madness--bloody madness most of all.
paul kotheimer
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