beyond Covenant School. beyond assault weapons. beyond politics.  there’s a deep interplay with hell in the American social structure.  gun control, however sensible and sane, WON'T transcend it.  mass murder emerges from an unexamined, unaddressed dark spot in the collective human consciousness.  it can be described in one word: DEHUMANISATION.

not just a loner’s psychological flaw: but the denial of humanity (partial, any and all) to chosen "others." 

projection's fell phenomenon embedded in the social norm.

we have enemies.  we need them.  we kill them.

we go to war.

“wearing camouflage pants, a black vest and a backward red baseball cap, the assailant walks through rooms and hallways with a weapon drawn.”

the killer, whatever his specific “motive,” was playing war.  he had, in his mind and heart, dehumanised the occupants of Covenant School. this is the game...

the nation hooded one,

“USA! USA!”

played every day.

(why, say, can you hear

through our bomb bursted air

the national anthem fight song?

"glory hallelujah"

telling us "our god"

smote the "sinners"?)

*

mass shootings?  they’re everywhere.

when the "good guys with guns"

(that's "us" of course)

wage war,

noncombatants fall.

what could be simpler?

they die you see,

all those "bad" guys

laid out for us by Hollywood,

the Russians and Orcs and Klingons,

"savages" and "Injuns,"

"terrorists" and Muslims,

the yellow peril of slant-eyed Chinese....

and, say,

a bunch of nine-year-old children,

magically morphed into collateral damage.

*

we make this world ourselves,

you and me,

every time we follow
that
bouncing ball

(swaying into sprawl

domination affliction's
conflicted
pall);

the starless midnight

might made "right"

"siding"
a
memory holed

freedom to murder doled

exclusively souled

entirely imagined "history."

*

we make this world ourselves,
you see,

each time we close
our eyes

to proudly sing

'tis of "we"

(on our "inherited"
stolen "homelands"
of
Hawai'i,
Northern Mexico,
Puerto Rico,
Turtle Island,
and
Guam)

from see to seized sea...

(noosed around China)

eyeless teamed "Americans"

"we" as far
as
"we" can see;

crowned in "good"

just like our parents

taught us to be.

*

we make this world ourselves,

(all of "us,"

you see)

whenever we consent

to the loss
of
our
humanity.

*

- (a poem paraphrase

knitted from the writings of)

Robert C. Koehler

(and the once and future sensibilities

mused in an elf, himself )