Shooting Children
By Narayan Rajan
We have another massacre this week
In an elementary school in Texas.
Seventeen children and two teachers
Sacrificed to appease the gun Gods.
“Guns, guns, more guns”, still the drums roll
“People kill people, not guns”, despite the toll
Exacted. Lives, loves, dreams, hopes all
Lead maelstrom engulfed. Yet another charnel.
A tribute to stupidity, lust for power, greed.
Should an unvetted teen be assault rifle equipped?
In moments, innocent little bodies to bits shred.
The “good guy with a gun” by aiming handicapped.
All reasonable, well-meaning individuals concur
Depraved slaughter of innocents must not recur.
Self evident is the need to restrict access to war
Weapons. Leave not a mote chance of a massacre.
The elephants note not bodies trampled underfoot
In their musth for power. They rush to court
Their gun gods, whose greed satisfies their lust.
Hand in hand, these ghouls dance their foxtrot.
“Now is the time for thoughts and prayers”, they intone.
The do-nothings’ thoughts are worth less than a fishbone.
Their prayers are either all to Mammon,
Or their God is busy playing chess with Satan.
In churches, temples they pray to Jesus Christ
The Son of God. They plead for him to intercept
Sins of omission and commission, God’s punishment
But Jesus, sweet Jesus, crucified Jesus hears only lament.
Bereaved, anguished mothers raise heart-rending cries
To indifferent skies. Their breast beating, sighs
Ruins of lives. Self-blame haunts hapless fathers
Forlorn families mourn preventable sacrifices.
Second amendment rights to arms granted to all
And sundry, hold the nation fettered, in thrall.
In a thriving society, discretion, decency prevail over all.
Worldly disgrace, shame impose curbs over the free-for-all.
The nation writhes in pain, helpless agony
Blind gun aficionados show no empathy
Days after gruesome massacre brandish weaponry.
Cannot reined in be this barbaric butchery?
If the pound of flesh is to second amendment granted
Should not laws address prevention of bloodshed?
The purveyor as well as the actor pilloried?
Yet, our partisan congress is deadlocked.
Let us each remember a murdered child
Each gun advocate endlessly remind,
“These children are dead, you are cursed”
Boycott socially the unrepentant accursed.
At Uvalde, good guys with guns stood around.
O for a R5D5, low slung, x-ray vision equipped
The shooter’s shots off it bounce, it him shoots dead.
Natural stupidity by artificial intelligence conquered.
Subverters of measures preventing murder are guilty
Of murder. In days to come, with dotage and frailty
Their portion, the voices of bereaved mothers’ agony
Will ring in their minds, evoke hellish frenzy.
When leaders of the people callously squander
Lives of children, our dearest, our future
It’s past time to tear all blindfolds asunder
Find new leaders that serve the people with honor.
Narayan Rajan, or “Raj Rajan” as he prefers to be called was born over seventy years ago in Safdurjang Hospital New Delhi. The birthing surgeon nicked his temple with his scalpel.
Raj was educated at The Lawrence School Sanawar, a residential public school (English usage, means private school), the Indian Institute Technology Kharagpur and the Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore. He worked for the Indian Satellite Centre, NASA Ames Research Center and for almost forty Bay Area companies mostly as a contractor. His last full-time job was a two-and-a half year stint as an Apple employee.
When Raj was twenty years old he was jilted for the first time. He consoled himself by writing verse and studying classical mechanics. After recovering from a nervous breakdown in 2018, he returned to writing poetry as a means of sharing his experience.