“Of the Stash Amassed by James Holmes”
Of the Stash Amassed by James Holmes
I’m told
a lot of people
buy bullets in bulk, like
to store them up.
“I call,” said Dudley Brown, executive director
of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners,
“6,000 rounds of ammunition
running low.”
The words trigger
crouching low
(beneath seats),
laying low
(beneath desks),
pushed below
(a protective
other’s suddenly
dead weight).
The bulks
of torsos sag
rushed out, people not meant
to store bullets.
Heads bowed, running low, those
trying to save them.
*********************************
I post the above for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night. Check out dVerse for wonderful poetry.
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: 6000 rounds of ammunition, Dudley Brown of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners' Association, Heads lowered, James Holmes Stash, Let Them Not have assault weapons, manicddaily, poem about Aurrora shootings
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ManicDDaily 
July 24, 2012 at 3:46 pm
In the UK anyone who wants to buy a gun has to undergo a rigid psychological profile. They have to be seen by a trusted (by police) psychiatrist and be evaluated on many levels before they are permitted to have a gun licence. There was a young man in the 1980’s who went on a killing spree armed with several guns and knives. He killed a lot of people, randomly as he made his way across the small town. Finally ending with killing his mother and then, himself. Since that event they really tightened up the laws on who can own a gun. It needs much stricter mental health tests run on people in the USA too. This is such a dreadful tragedy.
Sad read because it’s real.
July 24, 2012 at 3:54 pm
dang…another tiht response k…this one felt hard over and over again…you are pinging my emotions….
July 24, 2012 at 3:56 pm
i dunno what we have to do to fix the system…i dont think it is taking away the guns but seriously who needs that much ammunition….
July 24, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Well, I think stopping the sale of assault/automatic rifles would be a start. I don’t really understand their hunting uses, and they really allow for a huge amount of damage. k.
July 25, 2012 at 3:29 pm
agree that in the US these kind of weapons are far too easy to get and ammunition sold in regular stores?! Gun laws MHO need tightening up hugely but it’s more than that. The media freak people out so they get scared, and the psychotic tiny minority take full advantage of the laws … also your Bill of Rights says right to bear arms.. but it was written back when animals were still a real danger to human lives (like they still are in much of Canada).. the Repubs and NRA just keep on quoting the Bill of Rights. Charlton Heston is moronic dinosaur. Great take on this tragedy, MDD. Not oversentimental, just right.
July 24, 2012 at 4:00 pm
how do we not let this kind of non-thinking/non-feeling action push us to live in fear? the dead can no longer feel fear. you go right to the heart of it, k, when you use the human body as a reference point. very well done.
July 24, 2012 at 4:02 pm
I like the double entendre of “running low” here. I suppose everyone has wondered how he/she might have escaped the theater under those conditions. Apparently many crawled under the seats. It is a terrorist act and should be prosecuted as such. Craziness notwithstanding! Wonderful write!
July 24, 2012 at 4:07 pm
yes, Karin, another good batch of words….(that sounds so trite) to give voice to the ‘how crazy could this possibly be?” world of thoughts about Aurora. Words are all we have.
good job.
July 24, 2012 at 4:32 pm
A powerful write. I don’t know how you go about capturing such emotions, but you have done a magnificent write here.
On the subject of guns, I always liked Chris Rocks idea. Make bullets cost $5,000 each.
July 24, 2012 at 4:40 pm
EU! Horrible wonderful cartoonish macabre picture of storage in boxes transforming into storage in bodies, of human barriers–running low, crouching low, laying low–low, like your picture, no room to move, like . . . . except for having no bullets here and no death, this poem is like living through it–but that’s a mighty big exception.
July 24, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Hard to digest in view of the recent shooting in Colorado. But your writing sure does make its point, one that I wish more of the world would hear.
July 24, 2012 at 7:04 pm
RYN: The glass has been in the water and then sand, unitl washed up on the shores for well over 100 to 200 years. Because of that it is tossed, turned, and rubbed with sand until all or, most of the sharp edges have been worn down and it becomes smooth. It really is so smooth too. Lovely to have some in your hand to play with and feel it’s textures. 🙂
July 24, 2012 at 7:07 pm
Yes, I’ve seen it at the beach before, very gemlike only so soft in texture and corner. Your poem made me re-see it. Thanks. k.
July 24, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Hard topic captured poignantly, Kay…well done. 🙂
July 24, 2012 at 10:06 pm
“6,000 rounds of ammunition
running low.” In the words of a “normal” person. That’s pretty damn scary.
July 24, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Well, he’s a gun advocate kind of guy, but those were his words in response to the 6000 rounds. k.
July 24, 2012 at 10:14 pm
I do not understand their mind-set but I do appreciate yours very much!
July 24, 2012 at 10:39 pm
I have avoided so much of the coverage, of this thing that went down and discolored the sky again merely an hour from me. But here it is. You get it right– this is so evocative. I think you should tweet it under hashtag of #blacknightshooting or whatever the tag is, on Twitter. I tweeted the link to my poem about the wildfire last month and many said it helped them. It is nearly impossible for us, even as poets, perhaps especially as poets, to give adequate voice to this. Not even half of Colorado conceals and carries, BTW. Now you have given me permission to try again in an hour or so, a write of my own, as the thing is finally seeping into the crevices of the heart I keep trying to wall off. xxxj
July 24, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Well, thanks, Jenne. Maybe I will try that. You should absolutely write about all this – so close as you are, and understanding of the cultural backdrop and landscape. Thanks as always. k.
July 24, 2012 at 10:42 pm
ps – I did another one too about Hell and the whole thing. It’s really beyond sad. k.
July 24, 2012 at 10:47 pm
this is a new form “posture poetry” 😉
four child with book senryu
July 24, 2012 at 11:14 pm
what an excellent response to that shooting k. – tight and powerful words..really great
July 24, 2012 at 11:43 pm
I see no reason for guns unless one is a member of the shooting club. That means shooting at targets for thrills and not at people. Funny enough, members of the Gun Owners Club are still asking for more freedom than what they have now! Great write K!
Hank
July 25, 2012 at 2:22 am
I read your poem symbolically. And it is indeed unfortunate people are oriented this way. Thinking in terms of weaponary and ammunition is sad.
I really enjoyed your poem.
July 25, 2012 at 3:25 am
Fabulous, poignant and so true.
July 25, 2012 at 6:00 am
Heartbreaking actions that shook us to the core. Good piece.
July 25, 2012 at 6:00 am
Wonderfully captured K ~ The scenes, the words and the reality of those bullets hitting innocent lives…doesn’t make sense to me at all ~
July 25, 2012 at 8:19 am
“people not meant
to store bullets.” ….ouch
as I have read many on this (for good reason) your compressed lines and quiet desperation in this work very well…we need a Good News Channel
☮
if you care to:
consumption
July 25, 2012 at 8:46 am
Thanks. I wasn’t sure if that part came through as no one had mentioned it. Yes. I don’t watch TV news but my very elderly mother does, and it is overwhelming for someone like her. Much of the coverage is so repetitive and sensational (I think anyway, though I don’t watch it so maybe shouldn’t say. I mainly look at print – bad enough at times!)
July 25, 2012 at 8:48 am
ah poetry – the only way to begin to understand how to deal with tragedies like this one. thank you for sharing~
July 25, 2012 at 9:41 am
As has been done with tobacco products, we will be nudged and “educated” into believing guns are bad, and eventually we will come to detest and revile guns and those who own them.
July 25, 2012 at 10:12 am
Hi Charles, I didn’t think you’d like this poem, but it is really meant to be descriptive as much as polemical. I am not pro-guns, especially assault or automatic weapons; I don’t think many people that live in a crowded urban space like NYC favor the availability of these particularly. That said, my husband is an avid hunter, practically living on venison, and we have friends who are gun collectors, so I don’t think of myself as vilifying people who are pro-gun. But I am in favor of tighter controls, particularly on assault weapons. Would it have made a difference here? I don’t know.
Also well I think tobacco is pretty dangerous! Unbelievably addictive and life-shortening and a fairly big burden on the healthcare system. I think a lot of the suits and taxes have been based on the states having to carry those burdens. I suppose health care could be denied smokers but I don’t think people truly favor that– or even if they say they do, I don’t think they’d carry it out. All complex. K.
July 25, 2012 at 10:23 am
I agree with everything you just said; especially the last two words.
July 25, 2012 at 10:35 am
Yes, well, I hope you get some venison time and again! I’m vegetarian (of course!), but my husband is definitely not, and is able to usually hunt enough to keep himself supplied. I think it’s very good for you. k.
July 25, 2012 at 7:39 pm
These events are so terrible. Sometimes the only way to deal with such terrible crimes is to counter with irony and unpack the grammar that goes into the mind-set that created it in the first place. I like how you take on the preconceptions, visualizing it for us in the very words that forms actions in the world. This can be a powerful way to undermine such thinking. But how do we get it out to the world? Anyway, I really like where you’re going with this and look forward to anything else that you produce like it.
July 25, 2012 at 9:59 pm
I love this:
“(a protective
other’s suddenly
dead weight).”
July 27, 2012 at 5:03 am
yes i think it is a bit like the saying live by the sword die by the sword. usa is addicted to guns. =(
July 27, 2012 at 8:37 am
Lucy, send me your URL, if you have one. K.
July 29, 2012 at 4:07 pm
The idea of juxtsaposing those two – humans who store bullets, and humans used as storage for bullets – is extremely powerful, and the staccato of the short lines adds to that power.