Tony Dawson

THE WORM IN THE ROSE

Since 1986, the rose has been
the national flower of the USA.
But just like Blake’s rose, it is sick
and the worm in the rose is the NRA.

Some kids in Dadeville were shot dead
at a Sweet Sixteen birthday party.
Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, said:
“There’s no place for violent crime in our state.”

Yet in 2022, Ivey signed a bill into law:
no permit needed for a concealed handgun.
The NRA, always quick on the draw,
had also made sure to lobby for it.

In an ad for Ivey’s re-election campaign,
the governor pulled a handgun
from her purse, as once again
she wooed her gun-friendly voters.

And only recently in a Louisville bank
A disgruntled employee carrying a rifle
shot his companions at point-blank
range, killing four and wounding more.

If some black kid knocks on your door,
the NRA says, “Stand your ground!
Teach him not to hang around:
Just use your Magnum 44!"


Tony's YouTube video reading of "The Worm in the Rose":



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Tony confesses: "As an Englishman living in Spain, I am constantly appalled by the level of gun violence in the USA, the malign influence of the NRA, and the hypocrisy of politicians who pay lip service to condemning gun violence while actively pandering to their gun-obsessed voting base."

TONY DAWSON has lived in Seville since 1989. His writing has appeared in print in Critical Survey, Shoestring Press, Poems-for-All, Chiron Review, Pure Slush, and Loch Raven Review, as well as online at London Grip, The Syndic Literary Journal, Horror Sleaze and Trash, Cajun Mutt Press, Poetry and Covid, Beatnik Cowboy, and Home Planet News.