Rest Angel

Angel Hooper was in the first grade
First grade
Was
Was
No first grader should be referred to in the past tense

Angle Hooper went to a 7-Eleven gas station to get bubble gum
With her father
Her father
It was Friday
That's what you do when you are six years old on Friday evenings
You go jogging and you get gum
You blow bubbles
Bubbles steel and pink and iron and shield
Jesus be bubble gum all around me every day

Someone in a passing vehicle
Shot into a Kansas City parking lot
Before Booker Hooper
Bubble gum buyer
Hand holder
Jogger
Father
Could pull her away

She was dead
Dead
Dead

A six year old black girl
With braids and ribbons
And smile
And baby teeth
And twinkle eyes
And back pack
But no gum
Is dead

Dead

Say dead out loud
Let your jaw scrape the cement
Do not pretty up this tragedy

Ask yourself why
Remind yourself that
Angel Hooper is your daughter and my daughter
Tell yourself that Angel is too young to be an angel
Do not pretty up this horror with metaphor

There is gum for sale
And a bullet lodged in the head of a six year old girl
Who was not the intended target

Target
Target
Not the intended target
Like that makes it easier

Please let this trigger you
Please cry and see her face
Please think about her mother
Her father
Her sister
Her brother
Her gum
Her jogging feet
Her falling body

Target
Target
Not the intended target
Like that makes it easier