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On Charlie Kirk and His Assassins

Make people think. Engage them in debate.
Allow them to articulate with reason
The things they think. Defuse their unearned hate
And gently guide them back from wrath and treason.
Show Christian love and yet an iron hand.
Be patient with them, they are naïve youth.
But now the fractious climate of our land
Has martyred you because you spoke the truth.

Assassins stalk our country now. They’re out
And in the open. They don’t hesitate
To slander and incite, to shoot and shout,
To cancel, ruin, falsify and hate.
They claim that guns are death, but they embrace
Their use so long as it is for their cause.
They make each interaction about race
And twist sad victimhood out of their flaws.

Observe them as they slouch like rough beasts towards
An unreal city under a brown fog
Of teargas. Hear them belt out hostile chords
Of built up rage which reeks of rancid grog.
They play to dybbuks, fallen angels, Legion.
They gladly choke each harbor bay with silt.
They swarm like locusts through each state and region
Destroying things that they have never built.

Enough. Good people say the good die young
And through my rage and tears let praise be sung.
I pray that Heaven now receive the soul
Of Charlie Kirk who lived well on this Earth
Too short a time yet played a civil role
Which celebrated goodness, sense and worth;
Who taught us much is yet worth fighting for.
But not how to avoid uncivil war.

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Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals.  He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel  Bleeding Stone.  He lives in Wimauma, Florida.

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4 Responses

  1. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Shakespeare said: “No legacy is so rich as honesty” and Charlie Kirk didn’t hold back on the truth, which is why (I believe) he is no longer with us. He challenged university students with the alternative viewpoints – the viewpoints shut down within the walls of our indoctrination system – and in doing so, he opened confused and manipulated minds to the truth they’d been denied. For that he paid the ultimate price. His life was not in vain. I am certain this brave young man’s words have touched many and will continue to do so. Brian – thank you for continuing his legacy and not remaining silent in the face of this sick warning to all who speak out against the evils of this increasingly wicked world. I thank you for your eloquent and heartfelt poem written at speed with care and passion.

    Reply
  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    Brian, this is a powerful poem on two excruciatingly painful subjects — the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the kind of politicized left-liberal zombies who have brought it about with their fanaticism.

    The murder of the rightist Deputy Calvo Sotelo is what ignited the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Conservatives in Spain said “No more!” and rose up in fury to smash the leftists. Could such a thing happen here? I don’t know. But if it did, I know that we on the right would tear the left to bloody shreds.

    Reply
  4. Shaun C. Duncan

    I’m extremely impressed that you could produce something so powerful mere hours after this appalling crime and the sharpness of your diction only adds to the poem’s urgency. Your technique is flawless as ever, but to dwell on that would seem tasteless given the timing and subject matter.

    Not being Amercian, I usually don’t like to comment on the political situation in your part of the world but the United States is truly in a very dark place when someone as well-mannered and reasonable as Mr Kirk is targeted for cold-blooded murder by those who saw him as a political enemy.

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