the killings at Kent State

prelude

the lists don’t show
who shot whom
except
for whom

we don’t know the perpetrators
with
the guns
and certainly there are sides

though only
one side
was
you know
armed

more so we could
search documents or
talk with folk
to
know and note
who
gave orders

as if to say to children then

don’t learn more
or
your elders
might just as well
kill you

requiem

if you were at Kent State
in 1970
on the fourth of
May
you should have heard
shots
and known some of your peers
had been killed
by intramural soldiers of your nation

learning the price
of protest
I suppose
except that’s absurd

because the nation’s youth
and anyone who’s here under rights
and that
everyone
should not have to speak out at the cost
of loss of
life

and who had guns
but only soldiers
the only thing destructive
on
the students’ sides were
voices
yes
and maybe
numbers

it was tragic all around
unreasonably
even
stupidly
frankly so

I mean
what parent generation calls for killing
of its children

what learning process
even with complexity
goes so far
so
terminally far
to send a message

don’t learn anymore
don’t grow
don’t try
ever
again

c l couch


Taking place in 1970, the Kent State Shootings (also known as the Kent State Massacre or May 4 Massacre) were the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State University campus.
(Wikipedia and me)

Jeffrey Glenn Miller
Allison Beth Krause
William Knox Schroeder
Sandra Lee Scheuer
plus nine more students shot, wounded


photo by Ally Griffin on Unsplash
(stairways in Kent Ohio USA)