Covenant

Today, in this angry world,

we are gunned down by people

mad at the world, at themselves,

so hopeless and afraid, angry enough

to take matters into their own hands

as judge and jury and executioner.

Innocent lives, prayed over and grieved,

are taken, their blood spilled in a classroom

or across a busy street conveying our daily livelihoods,

and the uprisings that ensue, carried by some medium

into our living rooms, into our very being, are soon forgotten,

until another gunman, another killing, more lives taken,

blood spilled, children lost, prayed over, again, and grieved:

wild west justice in a modern world, civilized man.

We’ll blame, of course, whatever’s handy, a gun,

the shooter, his mental state, the victims themselves,

as if they somehow got what they deserved,

freeing ourselves of any responsibility, any guilt.

And the newsmen’s exaggerated words,  someone’s truth,

divides us as we seek to find fault even as we cry out

for solutions, doubtful that there are any, today’s angry

world just the way our lives have become,

hopeless and afraid, mad at a world

we feel powerless to change, unable

to see that we are the solution, a covenant

made with humanity and with ourselves,

to care for each other, lift each other up,

to give them no reasons for their anger.