Andrew Delapruch | + Follow Poet |
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Warning Behavior

well now, let’s see, 
if you live in “the land of the
free,” 
you get to see people get blown
away at a higher frequency these days,
because of
“individuals”
who have snapped,
right?
couldn’t be the wonderful capitalist 
gangbang, that squeezes its hand round the
neck of everyone,
forcing us to scramble for money,
constantly stressing &
“hoping for a better day”---
naaaaaa…
couldn’t be the inability to get a good job
or a job at all,
which would propel people at least above
water, so that slaughter didn’t seem so
enticing, when faced with a life of being
thrown into one of society’s garbage cans---
naaaaaa…
you get prison to look forward to, if you are
poor, you get a mental institution to look forward
to, if you show the slightest sign of complaint
about the status quo, or you get the street to 
live on, if you have tried to self-medicate, if you
have tried to do everything in your power
to keep your own finger off the trigger,
because of the immense lack of compassion
which comes with being the so-called
“leader of the free world.”

(ya keepin’ your eyes peeled for that “warning behavior”?)

so with 20 kids dead today,
20 who will never get to have a say in what could 
prevent the killing of more people,
20 kids who will never be able to
give us their own perspective on what is happening in
this country---
20 kids, whom this writer would have wanted to 
listen to,
rather than any politician, “leader,” authority figure or
adult who thinks that if things go on the way that they have
been,
that it is not going to get worse---
so are you going to stop going to movie theaters,
america? gonna stop standing on street corners
waiting to cross?  gonna stop going to shopping malls?
gonna pull all your kids from the schools?

(ya keepin’ your eyes peeled for that “warning behavior”?)

is that how you are going to deal with this?
sew up your eyes so you can no longer cry &
hope that the storm washes over, so you don’t have
to deal with it?
hmmmm….

(ya keepin’ your eyes peeled for that “warning behavior”?)

and for those living in other countries, who dream of
coming to this place, who dream of wallowing in
the gut of the empire with the rest of us, 
churning away into complete self-destruction,
is this what you really want?
do you really want to be like america?

(ya keepin’ your eyes peeled for that “warning behavior”?)

instead,
go ahead & blame it on the
“crazy behavior” of 
“one individual”
who committed a “heinous crime,”
sweep it under the rug again &
hope that you can forget about the lives of
20 kids who will not get to pretend like you
that nothing happened today,
so that they can feel all warm & cozy for their coming
“holiday,”
right?

(keeping your eyes peeled).

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