Don't even.

Apparently this is what we do now.

We wring our hands.

We send our thoughts and prayers.

We wonder what we've become.

We question - ad nauseum - 

the motivations and pathology of the shooter.

We watch as news crews revisit the scene of the crime

and show multiple angles of the carnage.

And then

we do nothing.

We blame whoever is 'the other' du jour -

Muslims, Mexicans, right wing, left wing, the mentally ill etc.

We keep electing senators and congressmen who are

bought and paid for by the NRA.

 

We glorify the Second amendment

as though it was carved in marble 

and handed down to Moses

from the mountaintop.

We take a collective breath

thank God no one we love was involved - 

and we go on with our lives.

Waiting for the next round to be fired

and then
we repeat our, by now, all too familiar 

national dance.

I'm sighing in deep despair -

because that's apparently all I can do

in this country I neither recognize,

understand

nor want to be a part of.

I am deeply ashamed at where my country is

and the lack of leadership 

and moral integrity

that keeps us from addressing

this hell of our own creation.