A Seemingly Endless Cycle Intensifies

Premeditated gunman kills over fifty,
Smoking automatic weapons fill his hotel room.

Trump speaks with programmed words,
Divorced from a heart of proven stone.

CNN heaps praise on his presidential words,
Separating them from the enormity of the crime.

The NRA plots a drive to arm more citizens,
Allegedly to mitigate slaughters to come.

Congressmen speak measured words of outrage,
Privately assuring comfort to lobbyers of guns.

Progressives cite rising tides of lethal weapons,
Reflexively, gun sales soar and gun-laden caches grow.

Hospital rooms are filled with battered victims,
While friends and family keep vigils of hope.

Ravaged bodies arrive on slabs cold with death,
Random citizens mourn again their savage loss.

Dusk, then dark comes over a gun-plenty land,
Awaiting a new cycle of death and mayhem?

James Hoover is a recently retired systems engineer. He has advanced degrees in Economics and English. Prior to his aerospace career, he taught high school, and he has also taught college courses. He recently published a science fiction novel called Extraordinary Visitors and writes political columns on several websites. Read other articles by James.