Flumes Volume 2: Issue 1, Summer 2017 | Page 105

once, twice, three times,

then in the parking lot

of the plant where he worked

(all thought happily).

The sheriff, like in the old west,

stepped through the doors

and ended the gun battle

precisely and completely.

And there is mourning

for this fourth victim,

the perpetrator himself,

because people knew him,

and cared for him,

and hated to see his life end this way.

It's a dilemma for us,

as Mennonites, as pacifists,

as people for whom

guns are never the answer,

(except when they are)

and there is grief for every life, taken,

for whatever cause.

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