I Hope The Sky Is Dismal Over Laramie, Tuesday, The Twelfth

I hope the sky is dismal over Laramie,

this Tuesday, as a metaphor or simile

of hatred that gave rise to violent treachery

that crushed the life from Matthew's body, brutally.

Say what atonement Laramie can hope to claim

that would, even a few moments, erase the shame

that must forever be attached upon its name.

No more is it a shining, alabaster city;

a place bereft of common, human decency

(that is, the virtues of compassion and of pity).

Will anyone there bother, just an hour, to mourn?

I doubt it.  And upon that place, the nation's scorn

must gathered and bear witness against Laramie---

against its apatheical complacency.


Starward

Author's Notes/Comments: 

The eighth line alludes to Katherine L. Bate's poem, "Pikes Peak," which is now known as "America The Beautiful."  The brutal, cruel, and prejudiced murder of Matthew Shepard violates the precepts of that poem, as well as the demands of Christian decency and morality.

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