Poet's comment: The game of using hate and fear to manipulate language into a cloak , that obscures one's human folly, is an age old tradition.

Gun Registry

they're going to register guns
hooray!
every gun from long to short
hooray!
so now we'll all be safe
safe from little children
who shoot their mommies and daddies
and their friends
and others who get in their way
...
safe from husbands
who shoot their wives
safe from crazies
who shoot those
who are not their wives
and safe from thieves
who steal guns
to shoot us while we stroll
along our city streets
and don't forget
those thieves
who shoot us as we stroll
so soundly through our dreams
...
two million dollars
a small price to pay
the minister was heard to say
‘tis only three million guns
our gun register is small
at sixty maybe seventy cents
per gun registered
‘tis worth the price
you tax-payers pay
hooray! hooray! hooray!
‘tis worth the price
we tax-payers pay
...
Mr. Minister
a question if I may
a billion dollars
you have spent
that's a thousand million dollars
we tax-payers pay
all spent
and I repeat
all spent
trying to build an electronic book
in which to keep
three million gun owners names
‘tis like a telephone book
you add a name
you look up a name
why cost we taxpayers
a thousand million dollars?
for a telephone book
...
in addition
we tax-payers look round
and see machine guns
spit their deadly fire
and belch that awful noise
the noise of criminals
dispensing justice
on some of our city streets
what say you
Mr. Minister
...
I will answer your question
and give you all the facts
our gun register
is no telephone book
I repeat
no telephone book
it is very complicated
to put a name into a computer
and then find it
yes it's true
we couldn't find the names
yes it's true
we could have asked
the telephone company
the income tax department
the pension department
and the passport office
how to build a telephone book
"I mean gun register"
and the gun owners were not helpful
they the gun owners
drove the cost up
they deliberatly made mistakes
on their application forms
...
and I will be the first to admit
that we all make mistakes
completing application forms
about forty five percent mistakes
is perfectly normal
depending of course
on how well the application
has been designed
...
but those gun owners
should have made no mistakes
our application forms were perfect
designed by professional lawyers
in perfect legalese
yet forty five percent
of their applications were wrong
this was deliberate
...
and yes it is true
that normal people
wait 'till the last minute
to send in their tax forms
and wait 'till the last minute
to apply for their passports
but gun owners are not normal
they are evil
yes!
those evil gun owners
want to keep their guns
guns that kill innocent people
like you and me
that's why
you tax-payers have to pay
one thousand million dollars
...
it is true
we have stopped some guns
from finding crazies
but ‘tis worth every dollar
and a thousand million more
to stop one registered gun
from killing a child
and remember
that before this gun registry
stolen un-registered guns committed crimes
...
I will tell you more
our intelligence sources have discovered
that from the United States
un-registered guns of crime
truck-load upon truck-load
sneak over the border
under the sleeping moon
guns of all sizes
from single shot guns
to guns that shoot
one thousand bullets per minute
...
but Mr. Questioner
you must also remember
that in our great country
your government
the government of all Canadians
takes pride
in protecting the vulnerable
...
I am telling you that
not one stolen registered gun
has committed a crime
and in addition
not one registered gun
has shot a woman
has shot a wife
has shot a mother
has shot a child
and as any fool can plainly see
this proves the wisdom
of the Canadian peoples request
no!
this proves the wisdom
of the Canadian peoples demand
that we build our gun registry
...

it was a tough decision
by the Canadian people
giving up
health care dollars
dollars that paid for
doctors and hospitals
and new diagnostic equipment
dollars that could have saved
the lives of tens of thousands of
kind generous
mothers - fathers - sons - daughters
they died
waiting for medical help
that never came
but their kindness to others lives on
and your kindness will live on
...
for in every community
we will raise a monument
inscribed with the names
of those tens of thousands
of noble Canadians who died
giving up their
two thousand million
health care dollars
for those few innocent people
who were saved by your
...
G-U-N
R-E-G-I-S-T-R-Y

keith o'connor
ottawa 02-12-08
www.tinmangallery.com