.

The Trail of Hate

Amid the upbeat crowd a sudden blast
Of noise arose like fireworks kissing skies.
Fallacious musings struck then swiftly passed
When crimson dripped before the saucer eyes
Of those who saw the bullet-bitten ear
Of Trump who dodged then dipped down to the ground
As panic in a chilling shriek of fear
Coursed through all who heard that ghastly sound.
It sliced through voters’ MAGA hopes and dreams.

Such evil aimed and fired with savage rage,
Such wrath whipped up by those whose ire beams
From spotlit platforms on a post-truth stage
And spat with bitter spleen from wicked lips,
Stokes murder with its sick and twisted scripts.

.

.

Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.


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54 Responses

  1. Russel Winick

    I was going to write something last night, but then I figured you would, so there was no need. I was right – you nailed it! Good work!

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you very much, Russel… and please write yours. Your poems always make me think and I’d like to read your take.

      Reply
  2. Brian A. Yapko

    Thank you for this, Susan. The poem is short but intense and a skillful, much-needed commentary on the evil that occurred yesterday. I’ve spent the evening and this morning in a state of disbelief and horror, both at what occurred and at the reaction of some leftists on social media who are disappointed at the shooter’s aim — people I have known for many years who I have now unfriended. Their sick reaction confirms for me the sheer evil of leftism and now progressivism. When they claim to care about brotherhood and love but celebrate things like assassination attempts, mob attacks on innocent people, violence and media manipulation of critical facts (like the incapacity of the president) — not to mention blowing off the voting decision of over 50% of the country because their ideology is more important… maybe they ain’t so nice after all.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Brian, thank you very much for your appreciation of my poem and for your observations. You are right when you call the events of yesterday “evil”. I will admit to not being shocked by what happened… sadly. We now live in a post-truth era of insanity where statues are torn down, streets burn, businesses are vandalized and looted, and police officers are attacked as a blind eye is turned on these “peaceful riots” by our draconian overlords. We have heard Trump called “Hitler” for eight long years and we have just witnessed the pearl-clutching ridiculousness of faux charges in a bogus and hypocritical case against a former president, and now this… all in the name of saving a “democracy” that doesn’t exist. I believe a hatred has been stoked by design, just as it was in Germany before WWII, and I blame every politician who is doing their job for the riches rolling in at the expense of “we the people”.

      Reply
  3. Mike Bryant

    You have captured the shock of the attempted assassination. You have also expressed the pure hatred that has been stoked against the half of our country who want more power to the people and less power to the federal government.

    The Fascists have been saying…

    “Trump is Hitler!!” and, “Trump is a threat to Democracy!” and, “…it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”

    And now they are saying…

    “Everyone must condemn the attack on Trump!”

    Does anyone else think that’s odd?
    Can they have it both ways?

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you, Mike. All of this is to create unrest and chaos so that those who started it can stop it… with an iron fist and extra money from the despairing taxpayers to fund their increasingly extravagant lifestyles. We will “own nothing and be happy” – by God!

      Reply
  4. Linda Fowler

    Thank you Susan. I appreciate you and your understanding of current events. You express them so well.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Linda, I thoroughly appreciate your words of encouragement. Thank you for reading and for commenting.

      Reply
  5. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Compact and erudite description of the horrific event.

    Reply
  6. James Sale

    Yes, ‘twisted scripts’ indeed, Susan: a powerful indictment of those who have precipitated this dreadful deed. I am sure the country is going to be gripped by the investigation into the ’causes’ of this appalling outrage.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you, James. It is indeed an appalling outrage. As for the “investigation into the ’causes'” – I believe this will be dragged on ad-infinitum to deflect from more heinous deeds blowing up in front of our faces. The lies we’re bombarded with on a daily basis make many want to turn their backs… I just listen and write a poem. Poetry keeps me somewhat sane in this wild and wicked world.

      Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    The shooter has been identified as one Thomas Matthew Crooks, a RINO Republican who contributed money to ActBlue, a major left-liberal fundraising operation for progressives and leftist causes and candidates.

    Reply
  8. Yael

    You sum it up so succinctly and beautifully in this poem Susan!
    Does anyone else find it strange and suspicious that a nearby rooftop would have been left uncovered by event security, that bystanders tried to alert security personnel to the presence of the very young man whom they saw crawling on the roof with a rifle, while security did nothing about it, but then his head got blown off right after he allegedly shot at President Trump? It will be interesting to see how much, if any, story drift and eye-witness death will occur with this one, as story drift and sudden witness deaths are often an indication of untruth being pandered from high positions of demonic power.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      In the security services, the technique is called “firing under” the shooter, which means that you allow the shooter to fire and kill his target, but you then immediately zero in on the shooter and kill him, so as to prevent his being captured and interrogated. According to some, this was supposed to have happened to Oswald at the JFK assassination, but something prevented it, thereby requiring the stop-gap measure of Jack Ruby.

      I don’t say that this happened at the Trump rally. But thank God for the BBC reporter who found and recorded the persons who saw the gunman climbing up the building with his weapon, and who screamed in vain to the police and Secret Service to do something. The authorities will have to do a lot of explaining about this failure.

      Reply
      • Russel Winick

        Surely they are cooking up their explanations right now.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Of course they are. But what the people saw and said, and what the BBC recorded, can’t be unseen and unsaid and unrecorded.

        An ex-security man was interviewed just a few hours ago, and he said the Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks just looked through his scope, did not adjust or shift a single thing, and fired one shot. That means he already had Crooks in his sights, zeroed in, and that he could have killed him before the guy began firing, which is standard procedure when you see an unauthorized person with a weapon who can attack your protected party. Why did the sniper not fire?

        Republicans in Congress need to rake that DEI bitch who runs the Secret Service over the coals.

      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Thank you for your input here, Joe. It gives me a better understanding of security and what occurred.

      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        … and Russel, yes, I think they are cooking up plenty of explanations right now… and we will never get to the bottom of it. I think we ought to trust our gut on this one. The smell of rats is making my stomach churn.

    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Yael, thank you very much indeed – for your encouragement and for your valid comment. I will admit to finding everything about the incident yesterday “strange and suspicious” – just as everything is when it comes to politics these days. I’ve been spun so many ways by so many different stories from so many different sources I’m smelling rats everywhere and there is definitely “untruth being pandered from high positions of demonic power” every single minute… I believe your closing observation holds much truth.

      Reply
  9. Cheryl Corey

    I’m amazed, Susan, simply amazed at how swiftly produced this sonnet. The photo, by the way, makes me think of the flag raising at Iwo Jima.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Cheryl, I like your “flag raising at Iwo Jima” observation. The scorching hatred burning through the Western world right now indicates we are at war. The sad thing is that ire should be directed at the out-of-control elitist overstretch that divides us on a daily basis and is succeeding every which way. Every skirmish “we the people” get into with each other is a step closer to a dictatorship. It’s a pity more aren’t aware of this. Every useful tool ends up under the same thumb as those they loathe.

      Reply
  10. Margaret Coats

    Susan, the event called for a poet who is a quick draw and a good shot. You signed it with your characteristic “kissing.”

    As James Sale points out, the shooting will lead to yet another Trump investigation–one of far more interest to Americans than dull dramas undertaken by prosecutors. And it’s likely to proceed alongside careful work by independent investigators.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you very much for your comments, Margaret… and what a fine eye you have for my quirky flourishes… this poem definitely needed a soothing kiss somewhere – what an horrific situation! I only wish I had as much faith in a fair investigation as you do. I’m afraid at this point in politics my faith in worthy finds rests at sub-zero. I hope I’m proved horribly wrong.

      Reply
  11. Cynthia Erlandson

    Like Cheryl, I find your ability to speedily cover the news in poetic form, truly amazing — yet not surprising: almost as soon as I’d read the headline to Paul, he predicted that you would be right on it. Thank you, Susan.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      I am smiling as I read your comment, Cythia. Thank you! Paul was so right. I tried to hold back… but I simply couldn’t. Once bile begins to boil within, a poem bubbles up from my spleen and out it comes. I can only thank Evan for embracing my condition and not sending me to the pharmacy instead. 🙂

      Reply
  12. Jeff Eardley

    Susan, the horror of this has affected us this side of the pond. Your poem has reminded us of the fragility of life for our politicians. Our thoughts tonight are with the innocent Corey Comperatore caught up in this.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Jeff, thank you so much for this, especially for mentioning the name of the guy shot dead during this evil act. My heart goes out to his friends and family. I would like also like to mention James Copenhaver and David Dutch who are recovering from their injuries – may they make a full recovery soon.

      Reply
  13. Joshua C. Frank

    Great job, Susan, and especially so quickly after the event!

    For me, the most disturbing part is that I’m already hearing about liberals angrily supporting the attempt on his life just because he’s Donald Trump… and I don’t even watch the news! But what else can you expect from liberals?

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      As we get closer to the election, and as Biden’s prospects get dimmer and dimmer, you can expect left-liberals to become pathologically violent. These are people for whom the specter of defeat is morally intolerable.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Joe, I agree with you on the violence front. There are many out there clinging to an ideology that is insane, and once the grip on sanity is lost, all bets are off. When men are women, war is peace, Math is racist, and our perfectly made children are brainwashed and butchered… we’re done.

    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you, Josh. As I said above this vicious divide will be the downfall of the Western world. People should be waking up to the real enemy by now… and if they aren’t, perhaps a bit of common sense should be employed before it’s too late… a rare asset these days.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        I’ve become more and more convinced that it’s already too late and has been for a long time. If children being butchered elicits an angry defense of the butchers instead of waking people up, I don’t think anything can wake them up.

  14. Evan Mantyk

    Thank you, Susan. You capture the sentiments so well. When people in power use laws to go after people irrationally, it breeds irrationality among the masses, naturally.

    There is another aspect to this whole thing, which may be worth a poem, which is the element of divine intervention. A fraction of a millimeter probably saved President Trump’s life. Similar occurrences happened with President Washington as he road out front and came back with bullet holes through his coat.

    This prophecy from March is circulating as well (you may skip to 11 minute mark if the video doesn’t do that automatically): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey0qVzG8_vU&t=661s

    And finally, a poem I wrote in 2022 in a show of support for President Trump:

    The Return of Trump

    No matter how you try to stop Don Trump
    He always will come back.
    He’ll lie in wait then jump
    In tiger-like attack.

    You put him in a box that’s wrapped in chains
    And throw him in the sea,
    And yet despite your pains
    You find “He’s next to me!”

    His arms are workers by the tens of millions,
    His hair is growing wheat,
    His tongue is Truth’s fierce minion,
    Coal miners are his feet,

    So even if you cut deep in his skin
    With empty cackling lies,
    One day he’ll rise and win
    Just as an eagle flies.

    https://classicalpoets.org/2022/11/15/the-return-of-trump-by-evan-mantyk/

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Evan, thank you very much for this generous, creative, and informative comment. We certainly need some hope and faith in these dark times. The prophecy and your poem have shone some bright light upon this page for which I am most grateful. I am also grateful to you for giving a voice to those whose viewpoints don’t align with those who govern. The SCP is a haven for free-thinking poets.

      Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      How entirely apropos! It stands alone as a masterpiece of political savvy!

      Reply
    • Patricia Allred

      Hello Evan!
      I recall submitting a piem aout President Trump here when he left office. I cried when I wrote it! I never expected that times would become so ugly in four years, and violent and hateful. And Americca would turn its back in Israel..Biden cancelling the Abraham Accords. A border now open in the south and from Canada.
      I appreciate so, your perfect description of his strength for the future………I loved every line, Evan!
      And The Epoch Times makes a difference in my days,,,power, faith,donations and volunteering is crucial,, if we want him back!
      MAGAL
      Patricia

      Reply
  15. Mark Stellinga

    Nice job, Susan, and you can’t escape another beating from a bully by merely nicely asking him to stop hitting you all the time. From a ‘saving what’s left of it’ perspective, the most formidable Commander in Chief our country’s ever had was a mere centimeter from being dead Saturday evening. It’s long past time to fight dirty with dirty – evil with evil – despite Franklin Graham’s discomfort with President Trump’s occasional off color rhetoric. I whipped up this little diddy for witch Maxine Waters a couple months ago –

    Maxine Waters – YUK!

    A super-star at trolling on the internet – non-stop, and showing up on cable stations almost every day,
    Congresswoman Maxine Waters fights to poison minds with rants of slander more perverse than even scum would say!

    A self-appointed mouthpiece for the raunchy left-wing media… without a doubt her party’s most prolific instigator…
    Every time she spreads her lips she verifies the claim that – in the realm of politics – she’s now the champion hater!

    Working hard to stir up sick-os – aimed at drawing blood, she’s closing in on Nancy P. as ‘left-wing party queen’ —
    And given all the threats and all the shootings that she’ spawned, it won’t be long before they place the crown on old Maxine!

    Hi to Mike –

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Thank you very much for this Mark – your telling comment and your powerful poem, which, although created a couple of months ago, serves to proves exactly where this violent rhetoric leads. These spiteful shills have an awful lot to answer for.

      Reply
  16. Mary Gardner

    Susan, you have a quick mind and a deft way with expression. I am awed by your ability to compose an excellent sonnet so soon after this emotional event.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Mary, I thank you kindly for your lovely comment. It’s comments like yours that let me know that my urge to grab a pen when I witness such wicked events in our wayward world is the right thing to do. Let’s hope I’m not grabbing my pen too frequently in the near future.

      Reply
  17. Joseph S. Salemi

    I can’t keep quiet about this. Now it has been revealed that the authorities at the Trump rally (both Secret Service and Pennsylvania police) were aware that an unidentified and armed young man was in the near vicinity, was climbing a ladder, and was crawling on the roof of a building. Civilians on the ground (who saw all this) were screaming at the authorities to DO something!

    Secret Service snipers had this creep zeroed in, and in their crosshairs, several minutes before he began to fire. He was only taken out AFTER he had fired his burst of rounds at Trump.

    The person in charge of security at this event was either incompetent, or complicit in a plan to kill Donald Trump. As for the Secret Service snipers, they were not following standard protocols for this situation (kill the potential shooter immediately), or the standard protocols were for some reason switched off.

    Or perhaps the snipers were terrified of offending their DEI boss Cheatle, who has done everything in her power to “soften” (i.e. feminize) the responses towards possible threats. A sniper could be dismissed, or hit with leftist lawfare, for shooting some young kid who hadn’t yet fired a shot. Can’t you just hear the left-liberal media whining about “poor Tommy Crooks”?

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      It is past time for a house cleaning at every federal agency.

      Reply
    • Lannie David Brockstein

      On July 16th, 2024, Joseph S. Salemi wrote:
      >>> “Can’t you just hear the left-liberal media whining about “poor Tommy Crooks”?”

      ~~~~~

      I wouldn’t be surprised if the Demented Party at its national convention in August were to nominate the corpse of that murderous twerp as its 2024 presidential candidate.

      From Lannie.

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        That’s still an improvement over Biden.

  18. Daniel Kemper

    I knew you’d be first out of the gate! Who else can write sonnets as rapidly and clear newspaper people write headlines? 🙂 It’s all just too much. No one should be subject to such hate, such nefarious schemes. It’s a strong reminder how ugly it can get if we don’t take care of our blessings.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Daniel, thank you very much for reading and for commenting. Your closing sentence is spot on, and it’s when things get ugly (and these are the ugliest scenes I’ve witnessed in my lifetime) then I get writing… sonnets pour from me like blood from a wound… let’s hope thinks calm down soon… I’m feeling somewhat anemic.

      Reply
  19. Mike Bryant

    There have been EIGHT Trump rallies in 2024.

    Did you know that CNN has only live streamed
    one Trump rally this year.

    Just so happens it was on July 13th.

    Are you paying attention yet?

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Mike, I am definitely paying attention. It gets clearer every day that the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump was a botched Deep-State operation.

      Two very, very brave women writers have convinced me that this is the case. Please read what they say at the following links:

      The commentator Dr. Naomi Wolf at Substack:
      https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/lady-macbiden

      It’s lengthy, but devastating. And Wolf points out the close link between Kimberley Cheatle and Jill Biden, and the absolutely unheard-of security failures at Butler, Pennsylvania, which cannot be due to mere chance.

      Then there is Ann Barnhardt, a Catholic commentator at:
      https://barnhardt.biz

      Part of what Barnhardt has to say:

      “The Deep State wanted his brains blown out on live, global feed. They were going for a global psychological terroristic trauma on par with 9/11 and the lockdowns.”

      The United States has now become no better than a two-bit banana republic. The trouble is, the Deep State that now runs things has exponentially more power than some Central American statelet.

      Reply
  20. Lucia Haase

    Thank you for a very intense poem. I’m so elated after
    everything that went on that President Trump is ok.
    I think it’s meant to be.

    Reply
  21. Lannie David Brockstein

    Susan, it is extremely concerning that the man who allegedly perpetrated the most recent Trump assassination attempt has been released on bail.

    The following quote is his statement, as reported by The Press-Enterprise and USA Today:

    ~~~~~
    https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/10/13/las-vegas-man-found-with-loaded-firearm-high-capacity-magazine-near-trump-rally-in-coachella-valley/

    and

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/13/suspect-bail-trump-rally-california/75664490007/

    Vern Miller: ““I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody.”
    ~~~~~

    Meanwhile in reality, President Lincoln was assassinated by an artist: the stage actor John Wilkes Booth. `

    From Lannie.

    Reply

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