Spin the world back
Align the planets
In time and place
Before terms of “modern history”
Before debates of definitions
And the numbers swelled
To defy all meanings
Coalesced of horror and terror
When men hadn’t lost reason
Or eaten seductive fruits
Of celebrity and hate.
Spin the numbers down
Beyond all the eights
Of Miami, Louisville
San Francisco, Omaha,
Carthage, Appomattox,
Manchester, Seal Beach
Spin back the nines
In Jacksonville and Waddell,
Red Lake High School,
Charleston and Roseburg
Spin down the ten
Of Alabama
That added yet more
Spin down the even dozens
In Aurora, Atlanta,
And the Navy Yard
Spin down the thirteens
Of Camden, Wilkes-Barre,
Binghamton, Seattle,
Fort Hood,
And Columbine High
Spin down the fourteens
At San Bernardino
And the Edmond Post Office
Spin down the eighteen
Of the University of Texas
Spin down the twenty-one
In San Ysidro
Spin down the twenty-three
At Killeen
Spin down the twenty-seven
Of Sandy Hook
Spin down the thirty-two
At Virginia Tech
Spin down the forty-nine
In Orlando
Spin down the fifty-eight
Of Vegas
Spin down
To a time of innocence
Before blood
Of four hundred eighty-nine martyrs
Soaked the second
Before tears watered
Graves of the framers
Spin, spin us back
Or
Spin, spin us forward
To a new time
When no hate fed madman
Can attempt alchemy
With gunpowder, iron, and blood.
