​I’m afraid to do this again.
Fall in love with a machine.
 
My fingers find those familiar
buttons that text me to you;
a thousand miles away, but
available from 6am to 8pm central.
 
Your heart is occupied by a
conveniently familiar face.
I expect to fall for you anyway.
All I can offer are snapshots.
 
What is it about distance
that makes me feel so safe?
What is it about you that
always brings me back? 

We the people of the United  
States of America in order to form
a more perfect Union have dug
a grave,
leaving a gaping hole for our
helpless children to fall into.
 
“Draw your weapons.”
we preach at our sons.
“Hide your broken pieces.”
We whisper to our daughters.
Smog fills our lungs, but
we choke on apologies.
 
The Constitution has become
to many of “the people”
what the Bible has become
for some of the Faith;
a reference point to abide
by or ignore as seen fit.
 
Even the Old Testament
was ratified to suit the times.
Still, we watch on
daily
As tiny fingers and bright eyes
Fall, blood-covered, to the ground.
They are not indestructible.
 
Bullets rip through families
leaving a nation shaken and torn.
“We must protect ourselves!”
Some cry out, guns lifted to the sky.
as another schoolyard is splattered
with the futures of innocents.
 
Who are we to believe that
our “right to bear arms” is
more important than the lives
of people slain around us?
What God would defend this?
What human would demand it?
 
 
In a country where we “Shoot first,
and ask questions later,”
what about this great nation
do we still dare to be proud of?
 
When hearts become as cold as
the streets our homeless sleep on,
and we turn a blind eye to persons
arriving near-death on rafts and debris,
our children learn that “WE the people”
can’t be bothered by compassion.
 
This great nation, much like those
once-beating hearts, can fall.
Divided by fear and hate, we pick
ourselves off, saving ammunition
for the enemy, which yet again
is only another scared human being.
 
We cannot trust our government.
We can’t trust our neighbors, friends,
families or our basic instincts.
We can’t trust even ourselves,
for we are the ones who’ve brought
this death and destruction upon us.