In a back room of the home nestled
among pines and dogwoods—bam bam
bam—shots over and over, bullets
felling grandfather, grandmother,
two grandchildren. The fescue lawn
shaded but ready for a Carolina summer
held in its red clay care two others hit
by the bam bam bam bullets. Echoes
from silenced beautiful lives fill
the patient pines. The ER will not
receive nor save these lives or
the shooter’s. Nothing in this world
can soothe the pain in the hearts
of those of us left behind, our faces
racked with tears and fears for
a world where—over and over and
over—guns break the silence among
hollow pine trees, our consolation
in each other, hopeful that one day
a brave new world answers our prayers.
Earl Wilcox is a friend both of the family of those killed in Rock Hill, SC on April 7 and of the family of the alleged shooter.