What Then?

By Kathy Lundy Derengowski

And what if the next
crazed school-shooter
is the security officer,
with a long gun
and a long memory
and a short temper,
who is tired of smart-ass kids
who call him “rent-a-cop”
and mock his lumbering swagger?
What if one too many of them
have flipped him off,
and his wife just left him
for another man or woman
and his credit card is maxed out
and his own children never call?
What then?

Kathy Lundy Derengowski is a native of San Diego County. She is an active member and co-facilitator of the Lake San Marcos Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in Summation, the ekphraisis anthology of the Escondido Arts Partnership, California Quarterly, Silver Birch Press, Autumn Sky Daily, Turtle Light Press, and the Journal of Modern Poetry. She has won awards from the California State Poetry Society and been a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards poetry chapbook category. She has been a guest blogger on Trish Hopkinson’s site.

Photo by Jose Alonso on Unsplash.