Somehow, this has become routine.

                          ~Pres. Obama, 10.01.2015

This road has surely paid for itself by now,

but let’s toss some more bullets in the bucket.

Clipped bodies pile up, obscuring the plazas

where we toss our spent bullets in the bucket.

Roll down the window. Eye our distant monuments

to war. In the foreground, let new killings blur.

Did Eisenhower foresee—paving roads for our heavy

armor’s movement—this interstate exchange of fire?

This news again breaks against our windshields

and we’ll toss still-warm bullets in the bucket.

The slugs sink over the blood-brimming lip,

burying names that line the bottom of the bucket.