Gun
Oh America,
you never got over your youth –
All those slap-happy penny dreadful
tales of Billy the Kid & Wild Bill H.
went to your head and stayed there
like lead poisoning. You talkin’ to me?
You must be talkin to me cause they
ain’t nobody else – Draw! And two
Lone Star College students shoot it out
in the O.K. Cafeteria letting some air into
each other and plugging a janitor who
got in de way.
Oh America,
what teenage boyhood fantasies
roll round in yo’ empty head. Bang Bang
yer dead. Yer one dead injun and I’m
the rootin-tootin cowboy on this block
with my cap gun and my Glock.
from Eavesdropping in Plato’s Café
Featured Print: Kent State 1970 by Linda Lyke
Linda Lyke, a faculty member in the School of Art at Kent State in 1970, created the above print in response to the horror of the Kent State shootings.