by Corley Norman
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It is near twilight and the man next door is mowing his yard. I am fighting my impulse to go over there, pull him away and shout What are you doing? No one mows at night! It defies all common sense! Stop right now! I would catch him off-guard, unnerve him with my unneighborly outburst. I wouldn’t be mad enough to shoot him or anything. I don't own a gun. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't shoot him even if I did own a gun. I suddenly realize he might own a gun and enjoy shooting. What is on my mind is that today many mothers were crying As they held signs and yearned to be heard by men whose deafness did not know sign language. Mothers wailing with the cries of their crooked-toothed, messy-haired children: Hear us! Help us! Like me, they did not want to be shot. Maybe their sounds just ricocheted like bullets off the fine marble walls of the Capitol. Maybe it felt wise and just to the quasi-lawmakers to tune out the inconvenient citizenry. Maybe they were thinking of things they had to do. Urgent things. Like: I think I’ll mow the yard this weekend.
*
Corley Norman is a writer living in Nashville , Tennessee. She has spent most of her life in the field of dramatic literature where she picked the wildflowers of Shakespeare to inspire her.She has an MFA from the Univ. of Tennessee.
Yeah. This is America today. Yesterday I drove down a driveway that was unfamiliar to me. I realized I needed to use the driveway to turn around my car and go in the other direction. I started getting worried whoever saw me in their driveway might shoot at me though just because they don't know me and consider me a threat. It's frightening stuff.