Guns

Wow.  Last week a teenage girl from North Caroline ranted on Facebook about her parents. Then her father saw it, taped himself on YouTube reciting what she had said, and then shot her computer with nine hollow-point rounds.  Wow.  I have read many things which name what was going on here. The expressions include everything from horror to justification.  I suspect our personal experiences have something to do with our reactions.  It usually does.  Mine was closer to the horrified end, my daughter*s reaction, not as much.  I don*t pretend to know what this means.

I grew up

We grew up

With a gun in the house,

Carefully stored away

For possible protection

Against unknown intruders.

There were none.

I grew up

We all grew up

We knew guns were not meant

To kill anything.

The gun lived in my father*s

Bottom drawer

Cleaned and primed

Never aimed at anything

Or anyone

Except perhaps

A target on the range.

My mind tries to wrap around

The teen*s computer

Shot to death

By her father.

It was punishment

For misuse.

It was rage.

It was shot to death

By her father.

Nine exploding hollow-point bullets.

The computer was killed

Nine times over.

Perhaps it*s understandable

Somewhere

Somehow.

Where I grew up

The gun

Was kept in the bottom drawer

Under my father*s underwear.

It was never used to kill

Anything.