police

Man Bites Dog

(that’s news)

Somewhere it’s been said

That news isn’t dog-bites-man but

When it’s

Man bites dog

This morning police came

With a heavy knock on my door

It was loud, I was asleep

So everything happened fast and fuzzy

A muscled officer, the kind

I want when on my side,

Told me urgently and kindly

That a tree was about to fall on my car

I guess we had a storm last night,

Which I did not hear

(sometimes I take a pill)

I pulled on jeans and left

Pausing I guess because we had to

For some official information

To pass from me to him

Outside it’s mid-morning, gray and

Dim with rainfall, lights off of

Firefighting vehicles not really changing things

So much

There was my car

My hobbit car

Tall but narrow, close to the ground

I had taken my keys (where

was my license?) and knew enough

To start the car and move it forward

Now there’s buzz-sawing for the tree

Though I hear nothing for the moment

(I’m nothing like a gawker and have been

inside), so maybe

It’s done

And with the tree

Our being in the local news for Sunday morning

C L Couch

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

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)

Los Angeles Times