by Alan Catlin
An I.C.U. nurse shot by federal agents was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun. —The New York Times, January 24, 2026
after the shootings at Kent State
a national student strike shut down
the colleges
Led to massive protests in the streets
Everyone could see that
shooting unarmed college students
was wrong
Under Trump
shooting a mother of three
with stuffed toys in her glove compartment
and a mutt in the back seat of her SUV
was okay
They called her a domestic terrorist
as if those stuffed toys were IED’s
And now a gang of six ICE agents
beat down an ICU nurse and shot him
dead on the street
And that’s okay too
His job was to save lives
not to take them
Blood on the mother’s SUV airbag
and on the sidewalk where the nurse
died tells us all we need to know
a national student strike shut down
the colleges
Led to massive protests in the streets
Everyone could see that
shooting unarmed college students
was wrong
Under Trump
shooting a mother of three
with stuffed toys in her glove compartment
and a mutt in the back seat of her SUV
was okay
They called her a domestic terrorist
as if those stuffed toys were IED’s
And now a gang of six ICE agents
beat down an ICU nurse and shot him
dead on the street
And that’s okay too
His job was to save lives
not to take them
Blood on the mother’s SUV airbag
and on the sidewalk where the nurse
died tells us all we need to know
Alan Catlin is the poetry and reviews editor of Misfitmagazine.net. His next full-length book of poetry is Still Life with Apocalypse from Shelia Na Gig Editions.
