Lockdown Alarm

By Mary Anna Kruch

(The Capitol Building ~ Lansing, MI ~ March 23, 2020)

The sky has gone indigo and

birds have long stilled their songs;

under the darkening sky, stars wink out.

Perhaps the birds and sky

are also laying low,

trying to expunge the memory

of that angry mob that stormed

the Capitol today, guns drawn,

protesting lockdown,

believing lies spread by a leader

who says the pandemic is fake news.

Horns honking, they

clogged Michigan Avenue,

blocked hospital entrances,

yelled obscenities about the governor.

All of it scared the bejesus out of me.

Now, six years past crazy,

I recalled gunshots in my small town.

Kids taking target practice?

More likely they were high

on the power of frightening others.

I feared the Capitol crazies

stood as role models for them,

who should be shooting hoops

not shooting their father’s .45.

What is this sick power that comes

with holding a gun?      

I wanted to, even then,

drive to Canada and stay a while.

But instead stepped inside

for the silence and my husband,

who I hope had lit a candle

and held out a tall glass of wine.

then turned up the stereo,

listening to Lennon the whole night.

Mary Anna Kruch is a writer and photographer inspired by her Italian heritage, the natural world, and the undetermined space between worlds. She has published a chapbook and a full-length collection, and she is working hard on a third book.

I was recalling the self-appointed citizen militia that stormed the Lansing Capitol building about this time six years ago.  I am not breathing any easier with the ridiculous chaos we have been thrown into. Especially after the school of children were killed in Iran by U. S. bombs.