SCHOOL OUT-KENT MAY 4 school let out forever
       on a fresh 'n pretty spring Monday at half-past noon
              with a last, leaping life/death lesson taught/learned hard
                       beneath opalescent skies on a rocky rolling green tree 'n grass campus
                                     at the hillside edge of a shadowless commuter parking lot you see
soldiers advancing bellies boiling
            khaki working-guy home warriors doing as told about
                       enemy insurrection 'n civil disorder
                                   some of them surly greaser-type draft-sliders just
                                               stoked to smoke some freaks
                                                          all of them troops aiming M-1s, lobbing teargas-
                                                                      "Disperse!" (you fuckers!)
students retreating brains roiling
            denim 'burb kids sharing collegial delusions about jonwayne combat 'Nam with
                       too many fellow danger-blind white teens/twenties boys 'n girls
                                   gettin'-an-education-type
                                               lots of 'em surely caring about war and bombs but
                                                          some just cat curious in a crowd
                                                                      others hurling stones, spitting words-
                                                                                  "Get out!" (you fuckers!)
two sides of one tribe, companions amid the uncivil chaos of a
            20th Century American civil war
                       facing off on the commons with plenty in common, yes, but this day
            cursing each other across the unprotected void (a killing field work-in-progress)
                       swirling together around and about the empty school hall
                                   wending their wrathful, ghosty way towards devastation
all these U.S. citizens yet nobody shares nothing at Kent State on May 4 and in any case
            the imperial imperative to chase down the Demon Commie means
                       government gunmen sometimes can act with contempt just like the
                                   lenin/stalin/mao/ho archfiend-
            morgue slabs for any unarmed civilians stupid enough to get in the way, oh yes
everybody ultra-busy about the business of turning anger into fear, fear into anger so
            clumsy, angry killers-leaderless, scared and ill-prepared-fire fatal volleys
                       a feds'-best-guess 67 shots in 13 seconds to
                                   explode the foolish face off a stubborn crowd just
            way too nixonbum noisy and reallyreallyreally roadkill askin' for it
                       one fusillade of high-velocity .30 06 (thirty-ought-six) slugs
                                   a clipful of .45s
                                               all steel-jacketed, of course, in accord with
                                                          (as Life would say about death) the
                                                                                                    articles of war
ripping flesh
            tearing nerve tissue
                       breaking bone
                                   shattering spine
                                               spilling red marrow
                                                          killing four young people-two women, two men
                       maiming 9 more, wounding the world with 54 other bullet holes
                                   producing a scene of mean slaughter that would've made
                                               Ike weep
            American youth smashed to ground and
                       sprawled dead across bloodsoaked asphalt
blasted bodies crushed in the furious, unforgiving spaces between the empty cars while
            all 'round begins the telling of a staggered people's longsad story
                       first in the smoky, teary-eyed silence following shot #67
                                   then amidst the low moaning and anguished groaning
                                               soon escalated into shouting, screaming, wailing
            (genuine sounds of too-true school prayer wished on icy breath into slippery orbit)
cracked voice to a tale told about
            war without warning, violence without comfort
                       rage without responsibility, pain without pause
                                   death without deliverance, hell without healing and
                                               bitterness without end
            spun down the years since, shoulder permanently hunched against shot #68
quite a lesson, pay attention, what a shuddering shame, damned hard test but
            popular murder'll twist the world a bit that way you know and someone had to
                                                                take it
                               on that sunny no-apologies/no forgiveness Monday at half-past noon
                       beneath brilliant buckeye skies on a blaming campus when
            learning blood-fused with teaching in bodybags and
school let out forever

                                                              -3/95 NED MADDEN (KSU CLASS OF '73)