GUNS

by Alan Catlin

after reading Ron Riekki

The shooters at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

      “And I wonder if we can’t talk about guns.

      So that’s why I wanted to talk about guns this year.
      Because we can’t.”

      —Ron Riekki, “My Only Friend, The End”

Years ago I wrote
a series of poems responding
to photos of high school students
who were shot in random gun violence

Each picture showed their wounds
their scars
some horrific
some less so but

but they were gunshot wounds
to kids 
in school
minding their own business

Each picture had a brief story
of what happened

Some told of best friends
sweethearts
kids they knew
dying in front of them
next to them

for no apparent reason
other than some angry
person had access
to a gun

One, way back in the 50s
yes, the 50s
was a kid from Brooklyn
who dreamed of being
first baseman for the Yankees

A guy walked up to him
in the high school hall
and shot him in the gut
and he felt his
dreams die

But he was the lucky one
The exception

He lived and played
first base for the Yankees
and the Cubs

He showed the camera
his scar

I guess
you never know

So, I wrote a series
of poems to those
pictures
remembering watching
the Columbine kids
running from the high school
and thinking I had kids
they could be running too
or worse

There was a shooter

At the school
My oldest went to 
While he was there
But no one was hurt

And I thought of
all this unnecessary shooting
of guns
and sent those short
narrative poems out

And not one was accepted

An editor said,
“No one wants to read
stuff like this”

That’s why we have guns
Why we have school shootings

Editor’s note: Ron Riekki covered every mass shooting in Michigan (all 17) from July 4, 2025 through July 4, 2026 for The New Verse News.

Alan Catlin is the poetry and reviews editor of Misfitmagazine.net. His latest full-length book of poetry is Still Life with Apocalypse from Shelia Na Gig Editions.