thoughts and prayers

someone is shot so the news plots it out like dots on a map because yes there is a map for the violence yes the violence can be mapped each day a body bullet-holed apple-cored and as of the time I write this poem there have been forty-four mass shootings this year and by the time you read this there will have been at least ten more so we send our thoughts and prayers and thoughts and prayers blanks in a gun that do nothing don’t even scare the perpetrators because who cares about wrath of gods when there’s the wrath of men here on earth right now with their weapons it’s not like gods can fix the wreckage after the wreck yet we squawk thoughts and prayers like chickens stretching their necks on the chopping block when no hand holds them down and they could easily run so fuck your thoughts fuck your prayers fuck your ammo fuck your guns