King Park

Another shooting on the south-east side

This a drive-by

mid-day

Outside of the bus stop

By Fuller and Franklin

or near there

Not far from the park

About a block from where

The other shooting was last month

Or was it last week?

Shots were fired from an SUV

Heading northbound

Eastown

The target

a rival

But they didn't hit the target this time

They hit a kid we think

Had nothing to do with it

And I travel backwards

Through time and space

and

I disintegrate

become invisible

I want to see it

Where I couldn't when it happened

I want to see it all

First hand this time

I want to know what it felt like

So I float behind police lines

Reconstruct the scene in fragments of memories

I want to know what his mother looked like up close

I want to see her leaning over his body

So I float there

transcend time

I want to capture it accurately

I want to know what the color of the blood was

Spilling out from the tarp onto the concrete

I want to write it all down

So I can always remember

If you could see it up close

How could you ever forget

How senseless death

How precious life

I want to be there

When the bullet hit

And the crowd poured out

As the shots drowned

Into siren sounds

Out of their houses now

And over front yards

All the way up to the place

Where the police tape ran

To mark the crime scene

Everybody trying to catch a glimpse

Of what was happening

of what was going on

Between the ambulance

and all the cop cars

Everybody gossiping

"Whose kid got hit?

Where'd it hit him

and who could've fired it?"

Everybody wondering

"How did it happen again?

And is he dead? These children

our kids"

Everybody wondering how far they were

From where the victims lived

And I visit them

their houses

Inside my dream I visit them

My spirit

soaring high and high

Up over King Park

leaves the crime scene

Travels further back

till far before the shooting

Through their windows

to their living rooms

I see them younger this time

Playing games and doing homework

All these marks of youth

Soon transformed coldly into stone

For fights and stupid feuds

For ruins wrapped in gold

and

Cruelly

I recall

Why I have come

To find a reason

But there cannot be a reason

Not for death

not like this

Not like this

Three days later

they made funeral plans

The family

Three days later

a mother

Had to bury her son

Not far away

the shooter

Holed up in a hotel

Near to the highway

With a friend and the gun

That same gun

He'd fled immediately

But was identified by witnesses

His picture on TV

Only 20 years old; they called him Grandpa

He was older than the others

By a year

maybe two

and

He was safe for awhile

Until somebody saw him there

And notified the authorities

Who surrounded the hotel

First arresting an accomplice

While attempting to flee

Then chasing him up the staircase

To the floor where he'd stayed

He closed the door hard behind him

Locked himself in the room

They could've kicked in the door

But knew the gun was still with him

One he'd already used

And so they feared what he'd do

I floated up through the window

Of a room to the west

I hovered out to the hallway

Tried to listen in

I heard them trying to reason

Get him to open the door

His uncle begging and pleading

Half-collapsed to the floor

He preached of hope and forgiveness

Said

"There is always a chance

To rectify what you've taken

Make your peace in the world"

I thought to slip through the door

I could've entered the room

I felt the burden of murder

It shook the earth to the core

Felt like the world was collapsing

Then we heard him speak

"Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?

Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?

Can I ever be forgiven cause I killed that kid?

It was an accident

I swear it wasn't meant for him!

And if I turn it on me

if I even it out

Can I still get in or will they send me to hell?

Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?"

I left the hotel behind

don't want to know how it ends