Not Everybody Has Got An Axe To Grind Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

This poem has reference to 'Robb Elementary School Angels Prayer' by dear poet Tim Labbe.

Let us pray for the souls
of the tiny tots
whose lives
the gun shots have stolen.

But let us pause for
a minute and pray
for the young soul
who wielded the gun.

He may be a killer
but he is a victim too:
The poor newest victim
of a lost childhood
of his need for being loved, never met
of a universe, which was never kind to him
of the ‘grotesque' greed of the gun lobby
of the mentally challenged trumps
of the self-serving ted cruzs
of cruelty of the drug mafia
of irresponsible parents who never cared for him
of his apathetic teachers who failed to hug him at least once
of the eroded American Values of Universal kinship
of a universe that shrank to his own little soul
with nobody to love
with nobody to open his heart to
with nobody to give him little hug, when he needed it most
with nobody to wipe his unshed tears off
with nobody to tell him ‘I love you', even once, even pretend.

Maybe he took to the gun
only to free as many kids as possible
from an unpleasant childhood he had endured
a childhood of deprivation and neglect
a childhood unloved.
He should have been an angel too.

May be he was the lone soul sane
in an entire world insane.