The Gunman

A gunman picks his Kalashnikov
Shoots a pen that stabbed him
Shoots a man who cursed him
Shoots a world that scourged him

  The gunman screams his pain
  Reloads, and shoots again

The gunman, draped in darkness
Cannot see the light
Cannot think or reason
Why is the gunman blind?
  
Behind him there’s a story
deliberately ignored
A convoluted history
A tale that’s seldom told
  
The gunman screams his pain
    Tries to say he’s hurting?
    Begging for compassion?
    Confessing his sins?
… The manhunt begins

Every shot that’s fired
drains our humanity
Addicted to the news
we lose our sanity
  
The gunman leaves behind
a debt he cannot pay
Looking the other way, 
our debt
we deny
  
--
Ehab Lotayef
Montreal, January 7, 2015