Poem: Aiming Higher

We shoot our rifles in the air

The bullets land we know not where

We load them up and aim again

A firing squad of seven men

Death camp near the Libyan border?

Drug lord scene from “Law & Order’?

No, it’s a place called Washington

Where nothing thrills quite like a gun

Saluting at the Inauguration

Twenty-one rounds in celebration

We shoot our rifles in the air

Then bow our heads and say a prayer

To those who heard that same salute

When some sick guy began to shoot

Innocent kids gunned down at school

Stop reminding us – it’s way too cruel.