My soul screams
at this insanity.
My entire being
trembles with tears
How could we
allow this hate?
We are all in mourning, bewildered,
angry,
grieving.
A young man, Omar, walked into
the Pulse night-club with an automatic rifle
and killed 49 men and women,
wounded dozens more and left all of us
traumatized.
Though he claimed affiliation with
ISIS, his shameful sin is not endorsed
by Islam nor the Prophet. This man
was driven by insanity.
More mass killings in America.
Insane people walking around with
automatic rifles.
Angry mentally ill people
with guns.
Why!
Why?
Why?
Why this sin of hate?
Why this madness?
Where is love?
As a poet, I have no words, no
way to make sense of the killings.
As an artist, I cannot draw a picture
to hold the horror.
As a person, I can only feel the shame
of what it us to be human.
We have so much beauty on this earth.
There is so much possibility.
There is so much love.
How can love rise above and embrace
this hate?
Do we have the courage to love
more profoundly?
Do we have the strength to rise
above our fear?
In our mourning
we
come together as community,
We embrace our LGBTQ
neighbors and friends with love.
We embrace our family
of LGBTQ with care.
We comfort each other in our pain.
We light these candles to witness
our loss, but also for hope.
From this pain and loss
we can rise up and affirm —
We are Orlando!
We are Orlando!
We are all woven from this
same fabric of life and love.
Now as this fabric torn
let us mend it with love and care.
Let us keep the memory of those
people in Orlando alive in our hearts
Let us move forward and mend this
pain with love and care.
We are Orlando.
++++
NAMAYA
June 13, 2016
50
I woke up Sunday morning, bumbled about, then saw headlines. 50 people killed. I literally did a double take. Fifty? Fifty?
Get dressed, head out with friends to have a good time, and don’t come home. Times 50. Plus everyone else who’s life is impacted by the events.
Makes me wonder, how does one reach that point where they think killing that many people would be a good thing to do? I get angry enough to yell and stop about, with my blood pressure rising, once every few years. Violence never enters my mind. There have been moments, if I’m honest, that I’ve wished bad things upon others, but not by any action I would take myself. But to get into a state of mind that would suggest buying an assault rifle and taking my anger out on innocent, rather vulnerable people is beyond my ability to imagine. I have resist killing most insects these days, let alone larger creatures.
Today’s news seems to tell the story of someone who was attracted to men but forbidden by religion to have that attraction. Couple that with a violent personality, and a career using weapons to solve problems, and it became a lethal mix of personality problems and available tools, forever altering everything for lots of people.
“I have resisted killing most insects”
During the “Gay” riots in June of 1969 angry Stonewall patrons and the many supporters who joined them that night fought and beat the police, drove them into the Stonewall Inn, barricaded the exit doors…and tried to burn down the building with the police inside.
There is no such thing as a human without violence. The human psyche is conditioned and tempered by emotions too often unleashed with little or no restraint.
No amount of unimaginative, saccharin poetry or prose can change that. “We” are not Orlando.
Nevertheless, a glimmer too late…?
http://ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/pride-goeth-fall
“The beauty of bisexual people is that they can stand alone. They don’t need to be a part of any other group. Same-gender and opposite-gender attractions are beautiful as long as they are not conflated and codified, and, as long as they are not shoved into a box canyon of inclusion where they do not belong. If, however, homo-sapiens are ever in need of a sexual norm there is no question that bisexuality is perfectly suited to the task. And, whether one thinks of themselves as bisexual, pansexual, demisexual, polysexual, ominsexual, polyamorous or “labelless” attractive – the fluidity of all sexual orientation is the best future for the freedom of human sexuality and the peace of humankind.”