August 10, 2007--A 28-year old man and a 15-year old boy have been arrested in the execution-style killings of three students and the shooting of another in Newark, a crime so shocking that it has galvanized a city long plagued by violence.
Execution-style killings:
shocking, yet common enough
to be named.
A style:
distinct, familiar.
Homestyle
Country style
Family style
Execution style.
We know these killings.
The shock is layered:
Incomprehension covers
recognition.
No foreign war,
no act of God, corrupt government
or brilliant sociopath--
a simple act
of someone made in his image.
No lesson beneath the horror,
no benefit to hindsight--
only the act.
Only an urge, unchecked.
A choice.
Today
I choose differently.
There are many days ahead.
It's a heavy weight
I lift with a story:
galvanized community,
surviving angel,
wake up call,
turning point.
I can shoulder narrative.
The act, encased in tales
of angels, morals, scholarships:
We process.
We distill knowing's burden.
How else could I face you,
knowing we share the same dark impulse?
A naked urge to destroy
comes to us
bundled with empathy,
hunger,
loneliness;
inhaled with our first breath of world.
Were they born for this act?
Or did they bend to impulse,
momentarily weak?
It could happen to anyone.
I'm not afraid of dying this way.
It's killing I dread.
"I want justice. They took three angels away from their families but one angel survived so the story could get told."
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