A schoolhouse story

I thought its been a Merry Christmas at Armalite Where I've been working for 15 years
Sure I remember putting together my first Colt AR 14
And thinking My family My wife who
 is an invalid Shot at the age of 22
And my 9 and 10 year old

Now They will eat more than grits
Now They will protect themselves with more than Slingshots

 When I started It was the pistol Grip
 A somewhat simple piece yet without it the trigger would lay dormant
 I tended to to it with passion until I was needed for the collapsable stock
 True I was challenged by complex parts Parts that only went

  Click and Chick 

When the fit was down to the millimeter
It makes a sound Similar to The detachable magazine

 Chaclick

And with that the ears resound with goodness
 After 5 years I got moved up In charge of Grenade launchers
 That year I afforded 33 Christmas Presents without pulling my belt
 A bayonet for Lee made him cry with joy!
A night viewer for Margaret was her best ever toy!
 But this year in a Flash It seems my life has changed
There's talk of suppression Jobs at Armalite are at stake
Some blame it on Newton And that bloody massacre
 Still here in Illinois There is cheer in the air In the marketing department
Now I am In charge of communiqués I wrote:

"ArmaLite will stop processing shipments to customers at noon, Thursday December 20st through January 2nd due to year end inventory. Shipments will resume on January 3rd. ArmaLite will be closed Dec 22nd through Dec 25th for the Christmas Holiday Due to limited supplies of AR10 and M15 magazines quantities will be limited to 2 per customer until further notice"

Was the last one I wrote today and
Then I got my final notice "Thank you for your 15 years of service."

A Childhood dream

"What are you gonna be when you grow up?"

asked my parents, my friends,

"I'm going to be part of a police lineup."

I replied, standing upright and fixing my look into the void
chin pointing like a torpedo.

Like many kids I loved cops and robbers, but what fascinated me

was the idea of standing in a line

and in that line

a criminal, real, in flesh and blood

held his blank gaze towards a two-way mirror
sharing his vibes amongst us motley lot.

There is something seductive about a gangster face

Out on a limb

exasperated

lips tied shut

and ready to devour

the first

victim

in

sight

I went to school where studies in literature always led me back to the scene of the crime

And then I started volunteering for police lineup work.

At first it gave me the chills

but after some convictions the feeling morphed into a state of excitement.

I was like being an emergency doctor:

no long trails with painstaking juries 

Here, I stood in the line and painted the meanest face I could as I looked into the mirror

often feeling solidarity -for behind that reflective shadow we could make out a moving,

 accuser, a man, a woman pacing back and forth and ready to raise his or her finger and say "that one!"

More and more rarely would I go home to visit my dear parents

Oddly I grew afraid they would look at me; judge me in a funny way.

One day when my little brother was standing on his toy zebra

I had a clear vision of the perfect police lineup

Where everyone was a criminal hence everyone was a suspect

So the aim was to pick out the most criminal of the criminals

and if you did

you

won.

My heart started beating because when I get a good idea I know I have to pounce on it

Like Pinocchio going after the grasshopper

I sprung into action

In America with over 3 million prisoners we need more lineups

We need to build them like airport strips allowing for 

easy suspect mobility and easy identification

Some say lineups are a pain in the ass because there are lots of crackpots out there

Making it all the harder for a hapless victim who, after all, while under duress, cannot probably remember if the assailant was wearing a back or a brown shoe.

Thank God we have institutions like MIT and a criminal justice system that

can fork over a little R&D to work out this equation

But seriously, why put out so much effort when the NRA has its own solution to rising crime?