48 HOURS

45 people in 48 hours

have been shot in Chicago

1 person (average) every hour and six minutes

1 hour and 6 minutes later

someone shot in Chicago

I wish I didn't know this stat

I wish I could write about

Solomon, my Yorkie or 

my friend's cat Michael

and how they each like to cuddle

I wish I could write about love

and how 13 hugs is the minimum

any body should have EVERY 

day Leo Buscaglia said

and about how touch starved

bodies might be among the 45

shot in 48 hours... 8 dead. 

I wish I didn't know that stat

I wish I could write about the

way the wind blows

through maple leaves

and a slight scent fills

the air with each breeze

about how heat radiates

from the pavement and your

hands, the way you touch me

I wish I didn't know about

untimely death, about

unnatural death, gun wounds

and trauma that lasts, about

shootings in Chicago or

Philadelphia or LA or Detroit

or anywhere... no, I wish

there was no such thing

as shot or dead people 

by gun fights by gangs 

by "disrespect"

or territorial turf wars

by wrong party in the wrong part

of the city, by kids caught 

in cross fires... I'd rather

be thinking of making

love with you, of laying on a bed

eating strawberries and laughing

I'd rather not know

this stat...

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 6, 2013