My Second Amendment Friend

Fed-up with their constant fulminating  
Using the Constitution as justification for intimidation
They parade around with their military assault weapons
Warning they also carry concealed handguns
They bloviate how they’re ready to kill anyone  
Who dares challenge their rightwing ideology
 
So, he began searching his storage closet
While sorting through his old belongings
Images of those dead children he taught
Murdered in his school’s mass shooting  
Flashed vividly in obsessional imagery
 
He found it!
 
The present his father gave him on his 12th birthday
A .22 squirrel rifle given as rural rite of passage
Like David with his sling, he was a crack shot
The last time he used it was to kill a coyote  
That was raiding his family farm’s livestock  
After the predator had killed a lamb  
He shot the brush-wolf right behind the ear
At over a 100 yards while it was running
 
Removing the vintage weapon of from its shammy sleeve
Holding it in his hand he said,
“Hello my trusty old friend  
You and I are back together once again
We’re going to a Second Amendment rally
To show them how it’s done”
 
Together they walked out the door
 
Remember my young friends, bullets always fly both ways in the end;
Always!

#BillyCollins