Please note that this episode contains depictions of violence that some people may find disturbing.
Hello everybody, this is Miriam Scott from Amarillo Texas. I am a wife, a mother, and a priest. And I love to read.
The genre of poetry has a special place in my heart. The absence of words, the unsaid words in between verses hold meaning in an almost soothing way. When one line flows into the other, the pattern, the rhythm makes us feel safe, like the beating of a heart.
In this case the feeling of safety helps to take in a gruesome subject matter.
Poverty and gun violence. Jason Reynolds writes his poems from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy named Will in his book “Long Way Down.”
Gun violence has been a constancy in our lives here in the states lately. We hear about shootings too many times to count. We hear the numbers, and then we hear opinions. Mostly from politicians.
What we don’t hear enough is the voice of the victims. We only get soundbites.
The population with the least amount of influence and the highest rate of being victimized are children.
Jason Reynolds gives us a glimpse of the horrible aftermath a child faces after Will witnesses his beloved older brother being shot to death.
Listen to this:
I felt like crying,
Which felt like another person
Trapped behind my face
Tiny fists punching
The back of my eyes
Feet kicking
My throat at the spot
Where the swallow starts.
Will is mourning his brother’s death with his entire body. And as if this didn’t break my heart enough, on the very next page is this:
The rules:
No. 1. Crying
Don’t.
No matter what.
Don’t.
He learned this rule after witnessing his first deadly shooting. The silence. The absence of words, the lack of explanation paints a more accurate picture of the reality of poverty and gun violence than any news report ever could.
He is fifteen, and the inescapable circumstances he was born into not only killed his brother, but also took away his right to grief.
Where do you go from there?
Well, Will experiences a wild ride in the short 2 days after his brother’s death. And, fitting for the month of October, that ride includes ghosts.
In his grief Will focuses on the only resort he knows about: revenge. Another bullet.
But on his way to exact this revenge, Will is visited by the ghosts of people in his past who did not survive in the rough neighborhood. Victims of gun violence. Family, friends and acquaintances.
Whether you believe these are actual ghosts or the subconscious mind of Will trying to communicate with him, they have a lot to say.
This is Miriam Scott for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club, tune in next time for more from Jason Reynold’s A Long Way Down