A Room of My Own: Black Teen Tanka

reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXI

written in response to Francis Jen's remark: Always give your big smile to those who hates you. It will kill them.

we'll send you

back to the cotton field ...

a Black teen

stands unmoved on the playground

with a smile I've never seen

Added: Game Show 2024, XIV

God, guns and Trump

under the Waco sunshine 

a wavy sea

of people with MAGA hats 

shouting, Trump won, Trump won...

FYI: Donald Trump launched his first official campaign rally for Waco, Texas on the thirtieth anniversary of the 51-day siege, which resulted in the deaths of four federal agents and 82 Branch Davidians, 28 of whom were children.

And Business Insider, March 25: Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick takes credit for arranging Trump's debut 2024 campaign rally: 'I picked Waco'

Trump's decision to hold a rally at the site of a historic government standoff that claimed nearly 100 lives alarmed some.

"So Trump is planning his first campaign rally for Waco on thirtieth anniversary of the siege where a cult leader challenged the authority of the federal government and threatened violence," presidential historian Michael Beschloss wrote earlier this week, linking the former president to late religious sect leader David Koresh.

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXII

fresh bakery

at ten dollars per person ...

with a smile

I take a deep, deep breath

when no one is around

Added: This Brave New World, LXXII

written in response to this year's 129th mass shooting in the USA: "Nashville church school shooting, 3 children, 3 staff killed"

ra-ta-ta-ta-tat

followed by these blah, blah, blah ...

more "thoughts and prayers" 

FYI: Time, May 25: School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right, written by Samuel L. Perry,  sociologists of religion and co-author of The Flag And The Cross

What’s needed is a coalition of American politicians and citizens—secular and religious—who value the protection of innocent human life above power. Without that, the ritual will continue: Horrific deaths, followed by thoughts and prayers, calls to return to God, and no change.

And 

Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers. Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Lord, deliver our senators from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous.

-- Chaplain Barry Black, opening prayer for the Senate's new session

Added:

Monday blues ...

the snow turning

into brown slush