the time in Michigan
sigh
to cry
too much
too much
too
many
one is too many
or one building stick
torched
and a denomination wounded
as all on
Earth
should feel and think the hits
the wounds
the losses
of
God-made
(all God-made)
people
and
these faithful people
who
have heaven
and yet so many broken spirits
left behind
tragic quandary
of why
what
if
and without doubt
in all the world
what now
and should we care statistically
and maybe afterward
now
is the time
to mourn
to keen
to bury and to name
for remembrance
to apologize
and
pledge that as a species
we do better
how about asking
God make
us
better
even in challenge of perhaps
a lasting affirmation of
our free-owned
will
c l couch
At least four people were killed and eight injured when a gunman in a pickup truck smashed through the doors of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in [Grand Blanc Township,] Michigan during a Sunday service attended by hundreds, opened fire and set the building ablaze. Police shot and killed the suspect, authorities said.
The attack occurred at about 10:25 a.m. The gunman got out of the four-door pickup with two American flags in the truck and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters. He apparently used gas to start the fire and also had explosive devices but it wasn’t clear if he used them, said James Dier of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of the neighboring small town of Burton. The FBI is leading the investigation and considered it an “act of targeted violence,” said Ruben Coleman, a special agent in charge for the bureau.
Yahoo! News
photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Hour of the Gun
(I don’t like writing this)
x
I don’t know
Maybe killing with a gun
Is just close enough
And far away
To feel wretched accomplishment
And to objectify
x
There is blood
Do we know that?
Do we anticipate
A little
Or a lot?
x
The organs that will stop
Inside the perpetration
The time of life
That’s ended
Before time
Allowed
x
The evil that may celebrate
While there’s scurrying
To get away with it
Or another resignation
Takes over
x
As I say,
I do not get it
But I don’t have a gun
Though I have been driven
And I’ve known
That things
Overwhelm
x
C L Couch
x
x
1 killed and 7 injured in shooting in Oakland, California
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/us/oakland-shooting-california/index.html
. . .
Just hours earlier about 40 miles southwest of Oakland, seven people were killed and one was critically wounded in shootings at two locations in Half Moon Bay, officials said. A 67-year-old suspect is in custody.
And in Southern California, 11 people were killed in a mass shooting Saturday night in Monterey Park.
x
add Idaho and everywhere else
x
Photo by Luis Domínguez on Unsplash
x
A Thousand Stories’ Ending
(https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/us/thousands-oaks-california-bar-shooting/index.html)
How awful is it
That in counting human tragedy
There never is an ending
Twelve more die in California
By someone who had the privilege
Of guns
What was the motive
What cares
The family of the cop
The officer is lost
It’s almost absurdly dangerous work
With the luxury of weapons
So profuse
Twelve stories finished
Horribly
How many more will radiate out
Exponentially
To make a nautilus
A spire
Changing more and changing more
Outward
Over time
Making a circle of
Finality, regret
We despair
Over the Philippines
And Indonesia
Ukraine
South Sudan
France
Venezuela
And in many parts of the USA
Time will tell us nothing
The victims’ lives are done
There is nothing more
C L Couch
(CNN)
The gunman, a US Marines veteran, arrived at the bar on Wednesday night with a pistol, officials said. He shot an unarmed security guard outside the bar, then went in and continued shooting, injuring other security workers, employees and patrons, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said. Ian David Long, killed 12 people before apparently taking his own life.
. . .
The casualties included a veteran sheriff’s deputy who was nearby talking to his wife on the phone when the call came over the radio for an active shooter.
“(The deputy said), ‘Hey, I have to handle a call. I love you, I’ll talk to you later,’ ” the sheriff said.
Sgt. Ron Helus rushed into the bar as gunshots continued; he was killed.
(image)
Flesh and Blood
I tried to tally death a couple
Of weeks ago
Starting with two explosions in Kabul
The second device murdering those who
Had responded, rushing, to the first
Since then, schools have been the setting of
Murders, too
Workplaces, neighborhoods
Nature has taken part in many
Though we kill well enough on our own
The count of death is maybe not so
Useful beyond actuarial
The flesh becomes abstract
The quality in tears evaporates
The blood is in another room, not
The one in which we’re arguing
Funding and our rights to shoot each other
When and where we like
Control and majesty of black metal move
Us more than someone else’s
Daughter or son
This is not about an issue
It’s about a loss that’s real
Stolen like bounty in the night
Hell’s gone a-hunting
So ephemeral a trophy,
The soul
If this is an issue for you
Then vote for something
And in the mean time wait
Until changed forever
And on occasion wonder why
Steel propulsions have to mean
So much
C L Couch
Lines
the headline is
Nigeria mosque targeted
in suicide bomb attack
the ones with bombs were
women, one woman
inside, one woman outside
to catch those fleeing
from the first
two Muslims targeting
their own, killing and
wounding many
like the group at the
Christian church in South
Carolina, studying the
Bible when one’s own
opened fire
and, like Bible study, the
faithful at the mosque
(outskirts of Maiduguri)
were worshiping in prayer
C L Couch
(source Al Jazeera on 16 March)
clcouch123 
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