Ants and Acorns

Kevin Monahan shot Kaylin Gillis, 20, when she and several friends wound up outside his house in a rural part of upstate New York, the authorities said. ‒ Ed Shanahan. Man Charged with Murder in Shooting of Woman Who Went Up Wrong Driveway. The New York Times. April 17, 2023.

1

It's not about the South.

2

It is about acorns the squirrels drop
in Old Mrs. Sherman's yard
that the neighborhood children collect
when she is looking the other way ‒ when she
isn't yelling at them to get off her property.

3

Fences mark private land.
The oaks rise on unfenced land
where no house stands.

4

The children persist in their playing, determined as ants.

5

Old Mrs Sherman does not shoot at the children.
She uses her voice.

6

The Whites across the street from Old Mrs. Sherman
come out and yell when people turn around in their driveway
(wider than the others on Clinton Avenue and more inviting).
Mr. White owns the funeral home.  He does not shoot anyone,
nor does his wife, Mrs. White, who does the yelling
while Mr. White is embalming.

7

The children play softball on the narrow dead end street.
They yell at the milk truck, the knife sharpeners
and the rare automobiles that cross second base and pass home.

8

The children own the street.

9

The children do not own guns.

10

One of the children playing ball
will grow up to be a criminal lawyer
who spends time in jail.
 
One of the children will date a murderer
who may be rehabilitated ‒ or maybe not.

11

One of the children will lose her daughter
in one of the towers on  9/11.
 
One of the children will run a huge publishing house
selling best-sellers about 9/11.

12

One of the children will live above a garage
on a dirt road in rural New York.  He will own a gun
to kill meat for dinner and to scare off bears
when he walks to his mailbox.
 
One of the children will move to WNY and drive down rutted dirt roads
to see the camps built by Vietnam Vets who seek refuge in the woods.

13

This is not a Girl Scout camp.

14

This place will be off limits.

15

This is a place where you cannot turn
into the wrong driveway.

16

This is a place where a stranger's skin color doesn't save or harm you,
because you cannot tell a person's race through tinted windshields at dusk.
 
But in Kansas City, the 16 year-old stands on a well-lit porch . . .
It is enough that he is Black.
His talent on the bass clarinet does not matter
that he wants to be a chemical engineer does not matter
that he was sent to bring his brothers home
and that he rang the bell on the wrong house is all that matters.

17

This place is undisturbed by the nuclear waste dump nearby
where Covid mask restrictions still remain in force.

18

This is a place as familiar as war. 

19

This is a place where wars never end.

20

Teenagers in cars and motorcyle
looking for a friend in Hebron, NY  ‒
Twenty year-olds turning out of the wrong driveway.
 
This is a place where mistakes can kill.

21

 again and again and again . . .  again