It's Too Soon to Write About Aurora

The ego of the writer whispers that a statement must come forth tonight, on today’s events, for tomorrow’s digestion. All the reportage is well and good…but how does the tragedy affect moi?

It doesn’t, Bitch.

I was 2,000 miles away, snoring on the couch. No bullets ripped through my flesh, no children died in my arms. I was not having an innocent night of giggling with friends, lips stained with Jujubes and the yellow liquid they put on popcorn. My easy desert world was not shattered in ten horrifying minutes.

It’s not about us.

Oh, we will debate forcefully with our friends of the liberal and conservative bents and come up with an absolute solution to the handgun problem, but without millions in lobbying money, there won’t be much we can actually do. I have already watched hours and hours of televised coverage and all the reports in the newspapers.

But listen, we must.

The people who suffered this are our teachers and our guides, and they will have to tell the story over and over to get it straight in their minds. And we have an educated and articulate President who knows how to speak to them and to us. So, sorry if I haven’t produced the perfect poem or essay, but it’s not my story to tell.

Forget the film.

God knows, the people in that nightmare already have, because the killer didn’t really care about scenarios and dramatic arcs or even the current film in front of him. He revived the dead corpse of the last villain, with none of Heath’s class or pain. It was just a performance, you jerk. Maybe the greatest performance in the history of film, but you had no right to try to dishonor it in this way.

Yeah, like  he cares.

Anyway, like “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, we can’t write this poem in twenty-four hours. It takes time and thought and insight. It takes a master’s hand to realize the sound of horses galloping sounds in the words “Half a league, half a League, half a league, onward…” And don’t count on me having the best poem. I’m too busy trying to get people to donate blood in Aurora, Colorado. Which one is more important?