Where Have All Real Americans Gone? Alas, Mass Murder Poetry Never Gets Old!

Where have all the children gone, long time passing?

Where have all the young males gone, long time ago?

Where have the “adults in the room” gone?

Swiping or shooting till night’s early dawn

Worshiping “killer-kid”-vids; no more chants mother sun

All lost in Silicon-blue state ‘rithims everyone.

When will they ever learn, when will their minds start to burn?

Oh, when does a soul stop to yearn?

Where have all the immigrants gone, long time passing?

Where have all people of color gone, long time ago?

Where has all our humanity gone?

Caged in categories: “other,” “strange,” ALIEN!

Your only chance… to be on the run.

Even Miss Liberty sneers: Who says “pursuit of happiness” is for everyone?

When will they ever learn, when does a soul stop to yearn?

Oh, when will our minds start to burn?

Where have all the patriots gone, long time passing?

Where have all the MAGAs gone, long time ago?

Where have Alt-righteous red-state people gone?

Wrapped in red, white, and blue, you son of a gun

Saying prayers for all whose rapid-fire time has come

Bought and sold in NRA pockets everyone.

When will we ever learn, when will their souls start to burn?

Oh, when will our times ever turn?

Where have all the crazies gone, long time passing?

Where have the mentally ill gone, long time ago?

Where have all our easy scapegoats gone?

Maybe it's just the White-Hot American Way

That good ol' boys’ arms and industry DNA

Profit Trumps people; you can pay or just “hate” to play

As tweet-sites scream: Just leave the USA or "Make My Day!"

Or, perhaps it's simple – just get on your knees and pray

But who can you blame when we’re all blown away?

When will we ever learn?

When will we once more yearn?

When will our souls start to burn?

Oh, when will these times ever turn?

? Mark Gorkin 2019

Shrink Rap ? Productions

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Like so many, I had a paradoxical mix of reactions to the Orlando mass killing: 1) first, I was startled and sickened, and 2) I quickly sealed over; just another day, week, or month in the US of A. But as my anger smoldered, I read something that revealed a common thread. Then my brain came up with an ironic twist, ala ‘60s Harvard physicist, pianist, and political-satirical lyricist, Tom Lehrer. Initially, the mathematical riddle may prove somewhat confusing…but, please, bear with my little irony. To say any more would spoil the game!

When Fifteen Times Four Equals One Hundred and Four (by now much, much more):

A Politico-Mathematical Riddle

Warning: This verse may be hazardous to the 2nd amendment/constitutionally-impaired!

It’s time for a lesson

Today’s times table session:

When does 15 x 4

Equal one hundred and four?

Do I have your attention?

It’s a life and death question.

AR(e) you ready to play havoc with me?

Here’s a clue: go waste the “e parentheses.”

Okay, to solve this critical problem

Sing the fiery national anthem

Shout that “Red BULL” slogan: Go ahead…Make My Day!

Of course, bow down to the new guard – the NRA. 

Now, putting two letters in front of 15

Makes you more than Clint “lean-and-MEAN.”

I gave you a hint, a few lines above:

Enough of this hippie ‘60s peace and love!

Perhaps I’ve been too clever by half

Ready to give this game-poem the shaft?

But wait…just kill the (e), grab that AR

Now you can do damage from near and afar.

AR is tactical

Who needs an ARmory

AR is radical

You are your own ARmy.

AR is surgical

Can rip open an ARtery.

AR is mystical

Crazed crusader ARtistry.

For AR alone seems but a trifle

But AR-15…makes an ASSAULT RIFLE!

AR + XM ** and all types in between

You too can be a mass murder machine.

Now I said 4 but who’s keeping score?

In fact…46 mass shootings since 2004. ***

While religious terror is in the design

But so too VTech and, of course, Columbine.

But from our four…oh what liberal furor

Starting with Newtown and then Aurora.

A workplace party in San Bernadino

A gay nightclub in Disney’s Orlando.

(Oh yes, that black church in Carolina.)

The Second Amend is starting to trend

We all have a right to buy a “best friend?” ****

With a cool option for the street hunting scene

A high capacity killer magazine!

15 x 4 may not equal sixty

When 15 x 4 totals all those dead bodies.

So when is the next rapture of wrath?

15 x 4…Just do the math!

AR is tactical

Who needs an ARmory

AR is radical

You are your own ARmy.

AR is surgical

Can rip open an ARtery.

AR is mystical

Crazed crusader ARtistry.

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** XM – BushmsterXM15 was the automatic weapon used in the Aurora, CO killings

*** 2004 – According to June 16, 2016, “Make It Stop: Boston Globe tweets every mass shooting victim since 2004” (when the assault weapons ban expired), there have been 47 mass shootings and 411 people killed; another news source cited 46 shootings

**** “best friend” – AR-15 has been called “the mass murderer’s best friend”

? Mark Gorkin 2016

Shrink Rap ? Productions