Two Poems By Katy Brown
Equivalents
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(The weight of a 9 millimeter bullet is between 7.5-9.5 g
— the same weight as each item in the first stanza)
Seven small paper clips,
a pen cap,
three pennies,
one small marble,
a gold and diamond wedding band,
one 9 millimeter bullet.
What scale measures the full weight of a thing?
Three coins for I Ching predictions?
Sacred pledge of a wedding ring?
A circle of fun with a glass marble?
Seven batches of poems and the cap to a pen that wrote them?
A hole in the heart of a child?
Tonight, twenty small beds lie empty.
Eight adults will never come home again.
Semi-automatic weapons, discharged over
and over and over and over—
relentless sound of gunfire over the intercom.
Weights and measures and consequences.
Study the photographs of terrified children
being led to safety. Look into their eyes.
Explain to these children why we need to collect guns
— try to explain. . . . .
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I am not Charlie,
inking war with someone else’s god;
subversively standing behind
the slender pen,
a newly sharpened pencil.
Hate speech is hate speech:
in racist rants, cartoons,
editorials, slanted news.
It doesn’t matter that all sides
are flayed by the nib.
The nursery rhyme is wrong.
Words can always hurt you.
Words and images are
constitutionally guaranteed
open-carry weapons.
They poison minds,
booby-trap reason,
assassinate discussion.
Right ≠ obligation.
Because you can broadcast
bigotry and publish intolerance
does not oblige you to
drown out opposing views,
bully, hijack the discussion.
Champions ready their armor,
sharpen their weapons.
In the deadly, high-stakes game
of Minds and Hearts
compromise, acquiescence, or surrender —
not options.
Why are you surprised. No.
Let me rephrase: why the outrage when
the Shock and Awe of fighting words
becomes a war with real casualties.
When the terminal punctuation
is a bullet hole?
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Two Photographs by Katy Brown
Katy Brown is a retired Social Worker, a proud grandmother, and owner of a camera. She hates housework, tolerates chaos, loves Thai food, and accumulates books. She has written some, traveled a little, and taken roughly some zillion photographs. It is simply astonishing that she is allowed in civilized company.
Crow in Tree-by Katy Brown
Ghost Audience- by Katy Brown