As the Clip Turns

 As the Clip Turns 

by David Rommereim

The clip

Sounds like a disease,

And, perhaps it is

Related to soul sickness

Where heart songs

Are muzzled

In the chamber of a magazine

Passing death

Faster than the heart beats,

When running for your life.

 

My shelf has a book

On violence and the end of war.

I liked the title,

End of War.

But, it wasn't about peace

Silencing guns,

Nor ending Noble's

Inspired market.

It was about the clip,

And the pointer finger

Flipping the trigger

To let death fly

Without touching terror,

Nor blood.

 

It is the end of war

Where fear keeps you

From lunging forward

Without any sense

That another life

May truly not

Be an enemy.

 

The end of war

Is a distant battle,

Fought with a drone

In a combat

From a North Dakota bunker

Where warriors could retire

To 3-2 beer and country rock.

 

Perhaps the clip

Is a disease

Since death has no meaning

And insanity

Has more to do with an

Outdated constitution,

Financed allegiance,

Than troubled brains caught

In a screening

Of night glare gone mad.

 

The clip has become

An American icon

And an enterprise of lobbyists

Who fear integrity and responsibility

Will never end the madness.

 

So let me return

To the memory

That self-defense

Refers to defending the other

From molesting the self.

   

April 2013

Written after a public conversation on gun control, drone warfare, and raising children in a violent world.