John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado, after the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting in 2012: “I refuse to say his name, in my house, we’re just going to call him Suspect A.”

A Curse


We will not toss a fig to, nor remember
The thieving CEO, the slipshod builder,
Dope-pusher, crack-smoker, Mafia mobster.
We want to hear their names no more.
 
Smudges on the landscape, insects in dogs’ fur,
The drunken driver, the occasional wife beater,
The sniper crawling out from under God knows where,
We want to hear their names no more.
 
Mad or not, the serial axe-murderer,
The airplane hijacker, the suicide bomber,
Who cares what sad lost shapes their childhoods were?
We want to hear their names no more.
 
Let them be swept up by some janitor
And never mentioned in a single prayer.
Let every feature of them disappear.
We want to hear their names no more.
 
For they are dung and spit and gelatin and scar,
The dribble soaked into a chewed cigar,
Old knots in dirty hair, crepuscular.
We want to hear their names no more.

Present Vanishing (Sarabande Books)

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