In memory of Charlie Kirk

For Charlie

by Matthew Mehan

A partisan becomes a man for all

when the part of him that hates his foe can fall

away to nothing more than a tremor in the throat.

Together let us learn the lesson by rote:

The turning point for all our hopes of parley

begin with Love and Church and now with Charlie.

*****

In Memoriam

for Charlie Kirk

Under a technicolor Utah sky, in the clear September air,

in the commons made uncommon, a man spoke

through riptides of Babylonian confusion, and he spoke

with the light of the Word of Life, and that light

dispelled the darkness that cannot comprehend its truth.

In the clear air, the bright and open air, a man spoke —

and as the sky cracked to silence him

how many mouths gasped at once, a terrible hush

like a rogue wave crashing. But he was not