Salinas Lockdown

Gangbangers execute each other
in broad daylight. Blood splatters
neighborhood lawns, ambushed cars.

After nightfall, raids and retaliation
spray bullets across a broken community,
leave additional scores to settle, more shattered lives.

In my school office, I monitor the security radio,
avoid windows, hide behind a solid wood desk.
My ulcer gnaws as violence escalates.

Within this war-zone, helicopters patrol overhead.
Daily, the body count rises. Poetry is in lockdown.
Words fail to stop sudden drive-by attacks.

October 2008