Honor has Fallen

Honor has Fallen

Let us register our complaints and let
rank rhetoric die (killer words like to
worm their way into cantankerous souls like
you and I.)

Words like bullets, sprayed across the airwaves,
(and others say it was true yesterday when we
dueled with lead balls and powdered propellant).

Do we justify our deadly rancor by the actions
of a previous generation who calmly shot for honor’s sake?

Honor has fallen too, at the feet of public gossip
parading as a grass roots movement to change things
for the better.

One pulled a trigger and 18 lead missiles flew
into the afternoon Arizona heat. Hit! Hit! And Hit!

Crack! Flack! Hit again and Fling! Flash! Crash!

Ping! Pound! The sound of grease and fire, the noise
of madness and assassination. Hit! Another clip.

The perpetrator
preferred government conspiracies to radio-heads
red or blue. It was me against all of you.

And we prefer to blame rants who can’t keep
their mouths shut,
we like to make it up as we go, knowing that someone
should have known
the sure signals that decode the killing brain of a
20 year old.

And we prefer to defend ourselves, not our honor;
forgetting sorry, and erecting battlements, castles
and moats while sons and daughters have been lost.

Call me a fool, a lone duck, and disqualify me from your
caucuses. I’m sure there are better causes than
blaming the air waves, defending my stupidity
or cracking open every brain to extract the dangerous elements

We think reside there.

It will scare us deeply when we find we have killed more with acid
and vitriol than guns have taken down.
I remember Your words, Jesus, don’t think I’ve forgotten them,
that when I’m angry with my brother, I have already killed him!

Register your words at the door, please. Or at least let us examine
honor instead of defending another misspoken alibi. We are libel

And unreliable too often with the truth.