margaret erhart
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tulips

3/25/2021

3 Comments

 
When people die, especially when they die public deaths, we offer flowers. First Atlanta, then six days later, Boulder. Who will be next? Who have we already forgotten?

The tulips arrived at my house in late February and offered me a chance to remember how we bud, blossom, and die. The brevity of their lifespan gave me a great opportunity, a chance to see and feel the brevity that defines us all. I dedicate the tulip series to those whose lives were months, years and decades cut short by a gun. There’s no other way to say it. I’m tired of removing the gun from the equation. Without the gun, with a knife, say, or a sword, or the bare hands of any confused, deluded, lost or mentally ill someone, the odds would be different. The cards wouldn’t be stacked against a young couple shopping for the perfect lemon in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Come on.

“It’s easier to buy a gun in this state than it is to vote.” Chilling words from a Colorado man who witnessed last Monday’s massacre. And that’s another thing. Let’s not call these shootings anything less. The definition of a massacre is the indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people.

All week I’ve waited for the petals to fall. I anticipate they’ll make a pleasing pattern around the base of the vase. But this can’t wait. Not a day longer. It’s time to offer them. The flower heads are heavy, the stems are weak. They appear to be praying.
3 Comments
Shep Erhart
3/25/2021 06:20:46 pm

Powerful offerings.
Your wise words pierce my numbness.
Barely bearable!

Reply
Julia Erhart
3/25/2021 10:15:01 pm

After nothing happened with the Sandy Hook killing of children, I knew America was never going to move on this issue. It's so depressing. The rest of the world looks pityingly, and with astonishment, and even some anger, that these mass shootings keep happening and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop them. In Australia they banned the semi-automatics and put in a strict licensing system, and there was also a lot of $$ for buybacks.

Reply
Carol
3/28/2021 01:23:21 pm

Your words are a balm. Thank you Margie.

Reply



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