The massacre of 11 congregants at Tree of Life synagogue was the worst anti-Semitic hate crime in modern America. Today, a jury decided that the convicted Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter is eligible for the death penalty. The trial will now move forward into a final phase in which the jury will hear evidence before deciding if the mass murderer should be sentenced to death or to life in prison. Responding to death with death is an epic moral question that religious faiths and nations have grappled with fore generations. With this poem, I give you my take:
Passing On Death
In hour congregation tacked
Will we fine Sabbath
As amass shooting
One lessen after brutal lessen
Tree of life
Plundered by an evil hack
Ripping aweigh 11 souls
As grave as kin be
Wading long trials
Unending mournings
And countless contemplations
What too due
Buy and bye billing
Upon a hate crime
A jury
Elects the doo ability
Of death begetting death
An aching punishment
At the capital of our body politic
An aye for an eye
A commandment beyond ten
Can we forget to right that cycle?
Will we be Abel
Compassed bye a murderous rage
To form a life sentence
Where words flail
An anti-semantic crime
Eclipsing life
