Poem: Bent Mind, Spent Bullets
Dedicated to the Uvalde Shooting Victims
The Uvalde, Texas shootout is the 212th mass shooting in the US, within 144 days of this year. It is obvious that mass shootout is part of the cultural fabric, encouraged by the gun lobby and the 2nd Amendment. All the other countries in the world don’t carry these many guns.
This poem is dedicated to all the past and the Uvalde victims of this mindless violence riding on a lack of will in Capitol Hill, an outdated Constitutional provision, and mindless profiteering through easy access to guns.
While the parents cry,
till their tears dry
There is that somebody
whose cash register rang
there is that somebody
who laughed his way to the bank.When each shot was fired
and for each spent bullet
all in the name of Freedom
against the invisible enemy
somewhere written
called the Second Amendment.It is all so easy…too easy
for a bent mind and a spent bullet
to pluck away lives yet to be lived
and all those in the Capitol
can only pray and wish
and the only action is
wringing fingers in sorrow.A democracy can’t fix itself
and we fall to those who sell guns
and the bombs, missiles, and bullets
and extend the same logic
somewhere else in the world
all in the name of Freedom.Why bullets to settle debates
in a free, democratic land
It’s a warped logic and weird puzzle
That we will never understand.Meanwhile, another life is lost
To another mind bent,
another gun fired, and
more bullets spent.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2022
