Robert Cooperman

SILENCERS

The state of Tennessee
wants to pass a bill

that would legalize silencers
on their already approved

open-carry weapons:
So when fathers blast potential

burglars because they’re, you know,
black or brown or Muslim terrorists

or all three, and will murder us all,
the shots won’t wake the kids,

who’ve been playing first-person
shooter videos after they zipped

through homework in maybe five minutes
of tiger-maw yawning boredom.

Nothing more important
than a good night’s sleep, after all,

along with a hearty breakfast.


Gerald So reads "Silencers":



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Cooperman confesses: "This poem grew from an email from a friend from Tennessee, which he said, in the infinite wisdom of its Republican controlled legislature is trying to make the purchase and use of silencers on the state's open carry handguns legal. This struck me as patently ridiculous: isn't it enough you can pack heat on your hip and scare the hell out of non-gun carrying citizens who might, God forbid, be Democrats?"


ROBERT COOPERMAN's latest collection, Draft Dodger Blues (FutureCycle Press = FutureCycle.org, for orders) is just out. His other recent collection is City Hat Frame Factory, from Aldrich Press.