(After the July 2025 Midtown Manhattan Mass Shooting)
by Michael T. Young
When you read news about
a mass shooting, when you read
the names of the dead, you don’t expect
to know anyone. You don't expect
to wither into a shock of knowing,
your words to wither into the heart-shaped
emptiness of condolences. And you are
surprised by your anger at conspiracy theories
that feast on day-old death as it were bacteria
on a corpse, brown-rot on a piece of fruit—
the coverup, the motives. And where is there
to hide if your private connection becomes
a public debate, and questions pervert your
mourning, filling it with voices and doubt, until
your loss is corrupted into another story
that conceals what no one dares speak?
a mass shooting, when you read
the names of the dead, you don’t expect
to know anyone. You don't expect
to wither into a shock of knowing,
your words to wither into the heart-shaped
emptiness of condolences. And you are
surprised by your anger at conspiracy theories
that feast on day-old death as it were bacteria
on a corpse, brown-rot on a piece of fruit—
the coverup, the motives. And where is there
to hide if your private connection becomes
a public debate, and questions pervert your
mourning, filling it with voices and doubt, until
your loss is corrupted into another story
that conceals what no one dares speak?
Michael T. Young’s fourth collection, Mountain Climbing a River, will be published by Broadstone Media in late 2025. His third full-length collection, The Infinite Doctrine of Water, was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award. He received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. His poetry has been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac. It has also appeared in numerous journals including I-70, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, Rattle, and Vox Populi.
