U.S. SUPREME COURT PROTECTS GUNS

by Penelope Scambly Schott

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast: “Inside the Celebrity Murder Behind the Gun Law SCOTUS Just Gutted,” June 23, 2022

“A State may not prevent law-abiding citizens from publicly carrying handguns because they have not demonstrated a special need for self-defense,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.

Through the arched cap

of my neighbor’s brick chimney

the sky so deep blue

and above his chimney

and all around town

while here in my garden        

yellow roses pink roses

and across the continent

over distant chimneys

under other skies

the noise of gunshots

the triumph of lies

Penelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. Her newest book is On Dufur Hill, poems about the cycle of the year in a small wheat-growing town.