Robert Weibezahl

BORDERLINE: AN ELEGY

the shooting at the bar leaves twelve dreams dead
thirteen if you choose to count the gunman
as journalists descend and twitter feeds
alight with condemnation and concern
the return to a kinder past becomes
more improbable by yet one more day

we recall when death was occasional
killing something from a distant jungle
beamed monochrome to living room TVs
nothing that happened to you or to me

birds sing next morning in acacia trees
and people walk their dogs and wash their cars
hearts heavy yes but propelled still onward
abiding pull of life’s necessities

innocence may pass into oblivion
as shock slams into anger into grief
before dissolving to numbing despair
to mourn a world where hatred abets fear
fear abets madness which abets killing
once more while none speak of that time before


Robert reads "borderline: an elegy":



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Robert confesses: "'borderline: an elegy' speaks to the devastating mass shooting that recently took place in the community I have called home for the last eighteen years. Rather than seeking answers to the chronic violence that envelopes our world, it is instead an elegy to lost innocence and a admonition against growing complacency."

ROBERT WEIBEZAHL is a playwright, novelist, and poet.His poems have appeared in Enjambed, Tipton Poetry Journal, Long Island Quarterly, The Five-Two, and The Caterpillar (Ireland). He is the author of two novels, a number of short stories (one of which was a finalist for the Derringer Award), and plays that have been produced in the U.S. and Australia. A book review columnist for BookPage for sixteen-plus years, he grew up in New York and lives in California. Visit www.RobertWeibezahl.com.