The United States of Ammo

By Naomi Serviss / New York City

America has lost its mind.

We’re Frankenstein’s monster,

lit by bloodlust and hate.

With easy access to death machinery,

itching for slaughter.

One putrescent blob of rotten humanity planned

a scorched-earth child and teacher massacre.

Armed to the teeth,

a teenage-brained psychopath

jones-ing for martyrdom’s victory carnage

turned 18.

Legally bought war tools.

This miscreant stewed in

Dante’s earthly inferno,

egged on by replacement theorists’

sack of bullshit.

A codified manifesto for snuffing school kids.

Their colleagues toe the NRA party line.

Lining the coffers of pay-to-play

Republicans.

Slick as an Exxon leak.

When President Clinton banned assault rifles in 1994,

mass shootings declined by 43 percent.

Republicans allowed the ban to expire

in 2004.

Shootings increased by:

243 percent!

What is the problem, people?

Nothing new under the sun.

Money makes the world go round.

Private donors

grease politicians’ palms

like there’s no tomorrow.

For 19 children and two teachers,

there was no tomorrow.

While children screamed for help and panic-stricken called 911,

cops stood idly by outside the school.

Following orders.

Then they lied about the shooter being barricaded.

Students were safe, they reported.

Ignoring frantic death throe pleas from babies

crying for their mothers.

How many children’s lives

could have been saved

if the police had stormed the school

and mowed down the offending parasite?

After all, according to some (particularly skeevy) Republicans,

“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun

is a good guy with a gun.”

Except when the so-called good guys are too stupid

to think for themselves,

ignore orders

and storm the damn school!

Where are the honest, upworthy Republicans?

Bueller?

Anybody?

Snake-oil Republicans should read this young teacher’s recent tweets:

As long as the NRA revels in the murder business,

we should be very afraid

terrified in schools, stores, supermarkets,

churches, synagogues, malls and at Little League games.

Repetition is warranted.

I can’t quit

this anguished question:

WHY IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?

Are we already over Ukraine?

Was Ukraine merely a distraction

from America’s true enemy--

Itself?

We’re armed to the gills,

ready to kill for:

What, exactly?

Are people that stupid, ignorant and racist?

Rhetorical question.It’s harder to adopt a dog

Than to buy a handgun or an AR-15.

Why not?

It’s a free country!

YOU get an AR-15!

And YOU get an AR-15!

---

The elementary-school slaughter

occurred just as my family

prepared to fly

to Marina del Rey, California,

for a much-delayed reunion.

The excited/scared/anxious symptoms. kicked in.

Then Uvalde.

This assault felt different,

like a crusty scab pulled off prematurely.

We’re still reeling from Buffalo’s supermarket slaughter.

How could this happen?

How to compartmentalize thoughts of

Ukraine

Afghan women

Climate disaster

19 children and two gunned-down teachers

We flew out of Newark at 8:30 a.m. and touched down at LAX by 12:30 p.m.

Serviss tribe members trickled into the hotel,

some from the East Coast, most from the West.

The elephant in the room, Uvalde, was confronted,

We shared revulsion, tears, anger and depthless grief.

Our reunion was not only for familial backslapping.

It was to allocate funds for charitable organizations

chosen by our small foundation.

We were powerless to turn back time.

and stop the executioner from slaughtering little Texas kids.

Although that’s all we wanted to achieve.

Instead, some of us will volunteer

at a homeless women’s shelter for an afternoon.

The days are warm but not summer-hot,

a refreshing breeze wafting off the Bay,

mingles with a lone seal vocalizing

into the morning mist.

In two days we’ll be flying home

on a jet plane

counting our blessings

that our children are long past school age.

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Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com