Accustomed to Dead Kids
Accustomed to Dead Kids
(sung to the Tune of Lerner & Lowe's "Accustomed To Her Face" from My Fair Lady.)
By Alexis Rhone Fancher
1.
I've grown accustomed to dead kids,
they almost make the day begin.
I've grown accustomed to the latest
locked down campus on TV,
the thoughts, the prayers,
the no one really cares
are second nature to me now,
like breathing out and breathing in.
I've grown accustomed to the sound of
gunfire zinging through the air,
the kid who shoots his classmates in his
impotent despair.
I've grown accustomed to their screams,
the ending of their dreams,
accustomed to dead kids.
2.
I've grown accustomed to the sobs,
of parents frantic as they call.
I've grown accustomed to the terror
when their children don't respond,
the pleas, the cries,
unsaid goodbyes
are second nature to me now,
like breathing out and breathing in.
I've grown accustomed to the anguish,
when they learn their child is dead,
hit in the aorta of their heart
or in their head.
I've grown accustomed to the thought:
guns matter, kids do not,
accustomed to dead kids.
3.
I've grown accustomed to the lies,
the gutless thoughts and hollow prayers.
I've grown accustomed to the rants
the NRA and no we cant's,
the maimed, the dead,
the platitudes instead
are second nature to me now,
like breathing out and breathing in.
I've grown accustomed to deceit,
— blame backpacks, Ritalin, or God,
never will the truth be told,
it's just too goddamn hard.
I've grown accustomed to the game,
politicians with no shame,
accustomed to dead kids.
Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, Poetry East, Hobart, VerseDaily, American Journal of Poetry, Duende, Plume, Diode, Pedestal Magazine, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles, and elsewhere. She’s authored five published poetry collections, most recently, Junkie Wife (Moon Tide Press, 2018), and The Dead Kid Poems (KYSO Flash Press, 2019). EROTIC: New & Selected, from New York Quarterly, and another full-length collection (in Italian) by Edizioni Ensemble, Italia, will both be published in 2021. Her photographs are published worldwide, including River Styx, and the covers of Pithead Chapel, Heyday and Witness. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly. www.alexisrhonefancher.com
©Alexis Rhone Fancher 2020
from The Dead Kid Poems, (KYSO Flash Press, 2019), republished in Verse Daily, 2020.