[Newspoetry] Second Rewrite of Senseless Violence Double-Sonnet

[Paul Kotheimer]

Hey Y'all

[here's a second rewrite of the double-sonnet i've been working on. thanks
to WKG for a fantastic line-by-line.  I've changed line 18 and lines 25-28
(herein marked "*") and i think it's better than it was before, but am
still not sure the ending is exactly right...  PLEASE PLEASE comment!!]


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.)
*Two mothers praying 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.
*We all fear pain and blood and grief and dying
*and act--from sheer compassion--every day
*so that the kids become our guarantee
*but can't be sure it will not happen here.

paul kotheimer
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