This is genius.. I'm in awe (a pathetic term of the word I guess) at the turn this took.. Unfortunately its true, tooo many innocent people being shot dead and it seems for nothing in particular either which saddens me to the core.

I had to log in real quick to say this is absolutely brilliant, and hauntingly so. I had thought from the title that it would somehow connect to gun control, and the acknowledgment (instead of denial like most Americans) that the common factor in these shootings is often white people (often white men) upon observation.

It angers me when people tie it to mental illness, or even, as I was reading debates today, on whether the murderers vote Dem or Republican. Honestly, it doesn't or shouldn't matter if they're left-leaning or right-leaning unless that is a pattern that has been verified and those accounts or records are accurate.

As a white woman, yes, I will of course say something is wrong with our race if we feel entitled to take what isn't ours. To me, it's even more complex than more regulations, as that little desire will turn so many people away because they feel attacked. To me, my understanding is that it's evaluating why violence is continued. Why.

It is deeper than just brushing it off as a mental health crisis, as I think that can further a stigma and be quite demeaning to those of us dealing with mental illness. It's a history of violence, of dehumanizing people of color and I don't know, some thoughts and beliefs of superiority. That alone is terrifying. In the past few years, I've seen and witnessed other peoples' fervent needs to "prove " themselves as a white person. Instead of genuinely being decent people or studying up on how we benefit (what privileges we have as white people), they want to cling to every aspect of their pride to their race. I don't get it but I feel these past few years have pushed white people to react more and more because they refuse to give any listen as to what white violence is... their go-to response is to hold fast to the constitution without realizing the majority of us don't want to take away anyone's rights that way. It's about learning from our past and being more critical or aware of our path.

This gave me shivers because so many people would rather say "stop dividing us further, it's not about race " rather than look into why white men are choosing violence time and time again.

Oh, and your reference to reds and blues DID make me think of how we vote, that there are bad "eggs" from each side and blaming one side without realizing our faults won't help make progress. I see too many political people in my life from both ends solely yell names at the other and I wonder if we can ever transcend the limits of two parties into something far better. Your use of "solid" made me think that white people are often pardoned, or seen as good, wholesome and then when the tragedies happen and news brings hysteria then it becomes one race against the other? So many powerful lines written simply.

Thought-provoking to the point of tears, every honest emotion is in this and with that simple "shoot", it reminds me how desensitized we all have become to this.

Brilliant work! There is a clear voice here that carries the poem to the bitter end. The sooner stricter gun laws are created, and recognised as an actual solution is a day these shootings become less and less frequent. I don’t even live in the US and the sheer idiocy and ignorance infuriates me.

As MA said, the repetition of ‘shoot’ is really effective in communicating the desensitisation to violence that is becoming more and more prominent.

I don't think you can stop people carrying guns or knives but I do think if anyone is caught with either then it should be an automatic prison sentence but one of those prisons without the soft fluffy human rights. The prisons today are more like hotels and serve no real deterrent or punishment for crime. Bring back hanging and hard labour that would work. Milly x

Very powerful write Everlasting

Double post