by Katherine Shehadeh
Conservatism
(n) commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation. (Oxford Languages 2023).
I wonder what we’re clinging to
a deluge of half-sunken flags
a little boy shot dead, his hand
forever blue in an ice cream cooler
his brother, the driver, wishes
he’d just trusted his sixth sense,
not gone so late, recalls seeing the future
suicided face of the murder-suicider
at the place on the corner that’s
supposed to be convenient,
& mom asks if it’s safe to go
to the Middle East.
I mention the latest mass shooting, not
the one in Texas or the car ramming from that weekend
a deluge of half-sunken flags
I wonder what we’re clinging to
Katherine Shehadeh is a poet, attorney, and current reader for Chestnut Review who resides with her family in Miami, Florida. Her recent poems appear in Maudlin House, Drunk Monkeys, Saw Palm, & others. Find her on Twitter @your_mominlaw or Instagram @katherinesarts.