I don’t get it.
I don’t know any reason for it.
That’s part of the horror.
The innocent victims massacred.
What’s the point?
It’s not like the martyr’s sacrifice
Striking back with the only available weapon
Fighting the oppression of foreign occupation
Motivated by the cause.
That I can understand.
With this there’s a different profile
Never tagged as terrorists
Mostly white male youth firing automatics
Target students.
What are they thinking?
Again and again the grisly scene repeats
Like a contagious mental illness.
Do the shooters identify with the power of the killer?
I do not want to get inside their head.
Not the world I knew growing up.
The children in classes nearby me surely imagine the scene
Sudden death at the hands of a crazed gunman
While the children living far off where the resistance
carries on
Expect their lives to explode at any moment.
Such a fearful symmetry.
Not the mutual assured destruction of my childhood
Cold war classroom civil defense drills
Get under your desk away from the windows
As if that would make any difference.
Now the weapons are improvised the warfare is asymmetrical.
The refugees arrive
Bringing their shattered lives to our attention
Desperate to find sanctuary
Seeking out the prosperous imperial center.
Coming home to roost.
