Title:Covenant/Reverse
Fandom: Original Poetry
Author: Hyperfocused
Characters/Pairing: guns and their victims
Rating: T

Challenge: Amnesty + Reverse (and many others, I’m sure)
Length: ~260
Content Notes: none
Author's Note: Part One written for another Drabble challenge.
Summary: Spring, 2023 in Tennessee Starting with the Covenant School shooting.

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1: Covenant

Same old story,
Too often told.
Schoolchildren scared,
Some shot, silenced. Slaughtered.
They run. Hide.
Shattered glass,
Splintered wood.
Blood the beloved
Janitor can’t clean.
The Principal played out.
No Substitute for the one unlucky enough
To have taken that day’s assignment.
The scene of the crime
On our screens all the time.
Misguided thoughts,
Misplaced blame,
Twisted faith.
Warning: labels
Demons and Angels
Not in appearance or names.
The kindness of strangers
Giving out of pocket and purse
Bring good news.
Useful. Welcome, insufficient.
Until the powerful do something,
Do the Right Thing,
Until they listen, until things change.

2: The Aftermath.

Until they listen,
Until things change,
I don’t trust them
To do the right thing.
The powerless are thought insufficient,
The powerful refuse to welcome.
There is no good news.
Stealing from pocket and purse,
The killing of strangers.
Because a baby heard gunfire,
And a father wanted peace,
Five are dead.
Only aliens, this time,
The governor claimed,
(The human kind)
As if legality of victims
Made their deaths less important.
Angels and Demons,
Some called both.
The Tennessee Three.
(Really the Tennessee Two,
“No Justin, No Peace”
A clever rallying cry
To this political pun lover).
The misuse of labels,
We’ve been told not to use,
Or worse, taught don’t exist.
Faith twisted
from Love into blame.
Voices silenced,
Shattered,
Science slaughtered,
Truth untold,
Blame old stories.