Open Carry - Sandra Anfang

[Larry Robinson]

Open Carry

When I first heard it
I thought it was a term for liquor,
imagined a thin man
swilling in plain sight
from one of those empty amber bottles
that litter the trail
on my morning trek.
They could be almost beautiful
if you turn your head sideways, 
a kind of millennial flower:
cubist, hard, transparent.
No ambiguity there.
Men pile into football stadiums
toting semi-automatics
like picnic baskets.
Families stroll the malls of America
loaded for bear.
Watching "The Free State of Jones"
I shield my face as the pigs are 
ushered in to lap up the blood,
the floors are mopped with it.
Rifles blast everything that moves
in this kill-or-be-killed dystopia.
At least there was a reason,
a freedom worth fighting for,
my rational mind palavers.
The lone mother, children gathered
in the shelter of her skirts, 
hunkered in the mountain's bosom
husband on the front lines,
a shotgun, her only defender.
At a military funeral
I hear the rifle's safety snapping into place
watch the words "bombs bursting in air"
leave the mouths of boys too young to shave.
My mouth is mute with shame for this, 
our symbol of renown.

	- Sandra Anfang



“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
	- Wendell Berry