Getting Away With Murder

Jared Loughner woke up last Wednesday
And thought to himself
Today is a good day to die
So like John Wayne in the movies
He saddled up his car
Stuffed his nine millimeter glock special
With 31 rounds of ammunition
Into his trusty book bag
And said to himself
Today that bitch is going to die
Meaning Gabrielle Giffords
Who was part of the government conspiracy
To control minds through the rules of grammar
Or so Jared thought
Also it was she who would not let him print
His own currency
So clearly she had to die
Besides she was beautiful, young and intelligent
Everything he was not or could ever hope to be
So clearly she had to die
That morning Jared had argued with his father
They shouted at each other on the front lawn
For all to hear
Because his dad suspected that Jared was not all right
That bright sunny day in Tucson,
A day so bright and full of promise
That Jared thought it was a good day for all to die
What do you have in your bag?
His father had asked.
What are you planning to do?
I plan to kill as many people as I possibly can
Screamed Jared spitting out his hate
And if I’m lucky I’ll come back and kill you too!
If he didn’t actually speak those words
We now know that was what he was thinking
As he drove off in a rage,
He was chased by his father
Who would have stopped him if only he could have
But no such luck
Jared was gone
To fulfill his mission, his purpose
And all he needed was just a little bit of good luck
Because he never had much good luck
In anything that he had ever tried to do
So he needed some today
Because he was insane and sick
And full of self-hate and self-loathing
And all he wanted to do was to kill someone
To make himself feel important
And to silence the demons that kept telling him
What a worthless piece of shit he really was

That morning Gabrielle Giffords was speaking
She was talking to her peeps
To the very folks who had sent her to Congress
And she was smart and beautiful
And young and intelligent
And Jared had already decided her fate

He had made sure to creep up behind her
To cowardly shoot her in the back of her head
Then he pointed his gun at the horrified crowd
Or perhaps to shoot himself instead
Then bodies began to fall all around him
Amid screams of horror and dread

And blood began to spurt
And all Hell broke loose
Just as Jared had hoped
For now he was in his element
The master of his fate
The star of his own movie
Just like at Columbine
Just like at Oklahoma City
Just like at Virginia Tech
Just like the Twin Towers on 911
And for a brief moment
Jared actually felt alive
And fulfilled

God bless America
He thought
Blessed land of opportunity for all
As he was being pushed face first
Into the parking lot pavement
Surrounded by the dead and wounded
Including nine year old Christine Taylor Green
Who had come to hear Gabrielle speak
Because she wanted to grow up
to be just like her someday
her brief life snuffed out
by a monster from Hell
who came to the Safeway parking lot
that bright sunny Tucson afternoon
because he thought
it was going to be
a very good day…

j. h. markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa., 2011