Bang, Bang

Bang, bang, you’re dead, the children said;
it‘s just a toy, says a boy to the policeman;
but whatever he saw, it was against the law.

It’s a gun in a lunchbox, nobody else talks
till we find out more about this weapon;
what a bore,
it looks so real,
                         dead real
and we could all be dead instead.

But it doesn’t shoot bullets, only pellets
that could still take out an eye but why
take the thing to school,
                      unless to be cruel,
                      unless to be cool;
somebody wants attention –
put them in a house of detention!

What the mammas saw was against the law.

Just a BB gun, lets have fun,
potshot, hotshot, fast enough,
but just not quick-draw;
muzzle velocity another atrocity,
small-time fate, all the same, another game
with bent-out-of-shape instructions,
eve of destruction, tomorrow is another day,
down in the boondocks, me and Julio
doing it coolio in the schoolio.

A hundred lines with different meaning,
leaning as we get off on crazy stuff,
all wired and fired, pins filed hair trigger thin,
just to set the alarm bells ringing;
here we go laughing behind our hands,
grinning, smirking like we know
what blood looks like when it runs,
like we know the bang-bang truth of guns.

It never was the pistol-packing thing,
concealed carry, shoulder-holstered,
hard-act –to-follow swagger – no -
watch the grown-ups squirm, go apes,
socco tape on classroom walls, that’s the story
after every schoolyard morning glory;
liven up the day my way, doing it this way, that;
pack a lunch with something for break-time;
break out the glock-horror just for japes;
here goes another day in K6 to 12
ha-ha – way to go – pack a lunch,
pack a rod, check it with the janitors
at the sports hall door…

© BH, 2019

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For Poetry24’s Sunday challenge - LAMP being the word this week. Here went a story of a BB (air) gun taken to child-care (pre-school) in a lunchbox. I couldn’t resist the sense of high jinx intensified by American gun horror. Paul Simon came to mind. - Me and Julio…’ - OK, when I was wee it was only frogs and fish-hooks. Pen knives were the worst weaponry we could muster and were much respected for fishing and whittling anyway. Guns. Too bloody expensive. But the will to mischief was there nevertheless. I wonder if that’s what this was about. Japes; japes that can take out an eye - or worse. Guns? Only in the USA.

'Twas ever thus…

Unloaded BB gun found in child's lunchbox at Johnstown Learning Lamp, officials sayhttps://wjactv.com/news/local/unloaded-bb-gun-found-in-childs-lunchbox-at-johnstown-learning-lamp-officials-say

BTW the gun concealed in the lunchbox above is a Glock Gen 3 G19 .177 Caliber Steel BB Pistol which you can buy through Amazon (dotcom) for (typical price) of about a hundred bucks.