Trying to make Sense of Red
—A Tennessee Cleanup
Its janitors are sweeping up its sins—
senators are on the floor with whisks and
fine-toothed combs. They crawl and sift,
scooping, collecting photographs
of those they’ve lynched
they cram them into
rubbish bins
—before their kids get wind
they ban their two-faced history,
they ban before their children come to know,
they ban before their jittering pot lid blows
—but
maybe they skew and hack the rules
.. ……… to save kids from what history shows,
maybe they obfuscate for mercy’s sake,
maybe. before their children come to see and judge,
maybe.. .they’d rather have them shot in schools
Jim Culleny, 4/8/23