If you are a Republican, you won’t like this piece.  I respectfully suggest that you stop right here.  Thanks for your understanding.

Now that I am learning how to write poetry – free verse kind, I have taken the liberty of inserting some of that style in my “rhyming prose” pieces.  I have removed some of the constraints I used to write under, including the number of lines in a stanza and the rhyming scheme.

We claim to be a developed country
–  A shining city on a hill
Yes indeed, a city built atop the
bodies of innocent humans killed
as if they were the target of fire drill

We believe in self-proclaimed grandeur
manifest destiny – endowed with special virtues
inherently different from other nations
destined and entitled with positive values
(American Exceptionalism)

The hill certainly has lost its shine
We lead the world in producing prisoners
We claim we tamed the wild west
West wasn’t wild before, it is now, teeming with
military style gun toting brainwashed executioners

We say prayers before venturing into public places
We cannot keep children safe in school
Our public places are now sites of massacres
The whole situation reeks of a cesspool

We are held hostage by the gun lobby
Our Congress can’t even have a discussion
about mass shootings and gun ownership
There are commonsensical solutions, but
until we talk, how can these be brought to fruition?

It shows how impotent our legislature has become
Republican politicians have one priority –
retain power at any cost, no matter how high
These include massacre of innocent children,
an abhorrent blot and stain on our humanity

Republicans treat mass shooting deaths
as mere collateral damage, war casualty
It is a “small” price to pay to ensure gun
ownership right is not academic but a reality.

Let’s put the blame where it belongs
Right at the doorstep of the Supreme Court
Their expansive reading of the 2^nd amendment*
Turned mass shootings into a sport
(* The actual text of the 2^nd amendment is reproduced at the end.)

Nothing happened in the 10 years
since the Sandy Hook massacre
It doesn’t require much foresight to say
Nothing meaningful will happen again
All we can do now is to pray! pray! pray!

Yes, we are “exceptional”, but not in a moral sense. Shame on us!

May the souls of these unfortunate students and teachers find peace and solace.
May God give strength to the loved ones of the departed to cope with the loss.

Let’s maintain silence for 21 seconds, for the 21 lives lost in the Texas elementary school massacre.

Pledge of allegiance – Republican Politician’s version

I pledge allegiance to my donors and to gun owners of the United States of America who stand to protect this great nation under God with liberty and gun rights for all.

Text of the second amendment:
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”