Poetry Corner for the week of 7/16/12: Part One

This week, I'll be posting three of my published poems (featured in Danse Macabre, July 2011).  Today is my poetic take on the numbing effect of violence and one of the most notorious events of the past few years.

Yearning to Be Free

How would

Charles Starkweather and

Caril Ann Fugate

act now

When would

apps for their

smart phones

not be enough

Would they text

love notes

and forward pics

of their latest kills

Death

as random as

the walking zygotes

that spawned them

Photos of

bodies framed with

little hearts or

hugs and kisses

Corpses

with countenances

as blank as

their killers’ souls

How far

would the Badlands

extend their desolation

to us this time

Would Jared Lee Loughner

smile for their camera phones

and be their comrade

in arms

What new boredom—

yearning to be free—

will express its emptiness

at others’ expense

Gordon Stamper Jr.

January 22 and May 4, 2011