about the Lewiston Shooting
let's not look away
I really love old radio programs, always have. A friend of my parents had tape cassettes of the original Lone Ranger radio series and The Shadow — that’s how I was first introduced to them
. I put the cassettes in my yellow Sony Walkman and cleaned or did my hair or whatever teenagers do. I love moving around. I hate sitting still. A few years ago, I was listening to a podcast series called, Old Time Radio where they rebroadcast those kinds of shows. I put on America’s Hour (July 7th, 1940) hosted by Orson Welles. He opened the show by reading Archibald MacLeish’s poem, Colloquy for the States. It was a call to action for the US to stop the Nazis from killing Jews and terrorizing Europe. I had read the poem in college but had never heard it performed. (So many poems are meant to be read aloud and heard instead of lying flat on a page—that’s when they come alive.)
Instead of falling asleep that night, I lay awake thinking about my friend Bill’s escape from Nazi-occupied Germany before WWII —how he traveled to Sweden, across Russia and China by rail, by boat to Japan, and then to California.
He used to talk about the danger of political narratives: most notably the importance of determining your own values versus deferring to the political zeitgeist. “Trust me,” he said. “I know.” He didn’t use the word sheeple, but he might have. He talked about how susceptible humans are to social influence.
I think we Americans often defer to the political zeitgeist and accept narratives that don’t serve us. I don’t believe that gun control can’t change. I believe that gun control can change. I believe that there is a middle ground, where people can maintain their 2nd Amendment rights, and not have access to high-powered semiautomatic weapons with large capacity magazines.
So in late October, in the midst of Maine’s first mass shooting, I wrote this after-poem, where I rely on Archibald MacLeish’s original structure but change the call to action.
COLLOQUY FOR THE STATES after Archibald MacLeish (1939)
There’s talk, says Illinois
There’s always talk, says Alaska
There’s talk on the east wind, says Illinois
Talk about what? says South Dakota, says Kansas, says Arkansas
Something’s rising in the clouds, says Michigan
The corn’s pointing East, says Ohio
Too noisy, New York says, can’t tell
East, yes, says Connecticut, I’m sure
It’s Down East alright, says Massachusetts
It’s here, says Maine
Bells, no, sirens
What? says Texas
Here? says Virginia
No, here. Wish it wasn’t, says Maine
But sure as the tides
Sure as logs in the Penobscot
Speak up, says Oregon
What is it? says Kentucky
Can’t tell, says Maine
Sea’s churned up
Leaves are rustling
Wait, there it is
Sirens
Tears in the Androscoggin
Those, says Mississippi
Maybe it ain’t, says Texas
Heard’em two decades ago, says Colorado
Fibs, says Maine
Can’t believe it
Think you’re any different? says Alabama
It’s sad talk, says Maine, bad talk
Not worth repeatin’
Wish it was the Rhine again, I do
I don’t
Tell me, says California
Maybe they’ll listen now, says Louisiana
Say it proper, says Connecticut
Out with it, says New Hampshire, I’ll pick your potatoes, I’ll fish your traps
Gather we’re stove up, says Maine
Shots near the Twins
18 gone, maybe more
Tears in the Androscoggin, and it’s runnin’ high
So, says Alabama…that
Sit, says Florida
Can’t, says Maine. Need to stand
Gotta pace it out. Figure it out
Can’t be done, says Illinois
Just because it hasn’t been done,
don’t mean it can’t be done, says Maine
Don’t get it, says North Dakota, says Wyoming
Starting to, says Vermont
Maybe, if we do it, says Maine
We’ve got to hunt, says New Hampshire
So hunt, says Maine
We’ve got to defend ourselves, says Texas
Told you, says Illinois
We’ve got rights, says West Virginia
To live, says small voices from above, from highchairs, from playgrounds
This is the land of the free, says Idaho
With freedom comes responsibility, says New York, says New Jersey, says Arizona
Here, here, says Virginia, says Pennsylvania
Have we earned it? says Nebraska
We could wait, says Kansas
Been waitin’, says Connecticut, says California, says Colorado, says Washington, says Kentucky, says Florida
They’re dying at the blackboards, eating dinner, hitting spares and strikes, says Maine
Listening to music, says Nevada, what are the odds?
Under their desks, says Texas
Our own blood in the mountains,
On the shores, In the valleys and fields,
Jesus, sea to shining sea, says Wyoming
It’s time, says Maine
We’ll do it first
Just follow the winds
Coming from the north
The sun from the east
For the tears in the Androscoggin, says Rhode Island
For the tears in the Platte, the Connecticut, and the Mississippi, too
Can’t wait any longer, says Maine
Don’t wait, says Utah
Together, says Oregon
Sure as logs in the Penobscot, says Maine
Sure as the tides.
Soon, Nina