Smashing Peace

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. Oh my gosh. The city I live in just approved a place to start to build a gun range in our neighborhood. In Our Neighborhood. I’m sick to my stomach. Literally.

No. No. No.  No.  No. 

I chose this neighborhood because it did NOT have the sounds of terror.

It has the sounds of children laughing and a breeze in the trees— of neighbors and the peace of neighborhood sounds— lawn mowers, the jump of a skateboard, the thud of a dribbling basketball.

I do not want to hear again like a few weeks ago when Dog Canyon was used by police for practice— and I had to go outside to see who was pounding on my house—- because that is what it sounded and felt like.

No. This is not right. It’s an invasion on my choice of a life in a peaceful neighborhood.

Surely there is another place. 

Beautiful Neighborhood ‘til Rat-at-at-at

Lovely neighborhood
Quiet and friendly
Tree-lined beauty
“Hello” neighbors
Kids and dogs and cats
Basketball
Skateboards
Bicycles
Giggles and laughter
Summer block gatherings
Looking out for one another
A choice of life
with pleasant relief
in a busy world

until… rat-at-at
rat-at-at like
pounding our walls
an invasion of tactile sound
a war zone
gun range
intrudes
smashing our peace.

Sheri Edwards
060922 161.365.22
Poetry/Photography

1197 days of posts in a row