Mother’s Nightmare.


Kate Kretz, “Cri de Cœur (Heart Cry)” (2018, after a detail of “Scène du Déluge,” 1827, by Joseph-Désiré Court), graphite on paper, 14 x 11 inches (courtesy of the artist).

Kate Kretz, “Cri de Cœur (Heart Cry)” (2018, after a detail of “Scène du Déluge,” 1827, by Joseph-Désiré Court), graphite on paper, 14 x 11 inches (courtesy of the artist).

While I understand poetic license, I’ll just add this is a father’s nightmare, too. That said, powerful artwork and poetry from Kate Kretz…

Here
the bitter dusty old men
dream
of the battle they shoulda won at Gettysburg
or finally
showing Daddy they could be a man
(in the street at High Noon)

Here
the young ones (who can’t get laid)
are
momentarily
Duke Nukem from Bulletstorm Full Clip
(in overkill mode, for extra points)
Finally scoring.

Here
another walking-anger-management-issue
finds a people-killing machine
(no problem)
It fires
fast and hard
a jolt
to finally feel something
Make their mark.

Here
mothers
must forever wade in the nightmares that
their children
might be the next collateral damage
in
yet another lost man’s
fantasy
of self-actualization

Via Hyperallergic.

Comments

  1. rq says

    This is a fear I never want(ed) to feel, not for my kids nor anyone else’s.
    Yesterday a friend’s child got rushed to hospital for a life-threatening skull fracture, and somewhere in there I dared to think, At least it’s not gun violence.
    What a world.

  2. says

    When sending a kid to school, a fear of them being shot should not eve be on the radar. It should not even exist in the space of all the things that can happen to them. It should be statistically somewhere between being hit by a meteorite and being hit by a lightning bolt.

    What a strange country USA has become.

    There are two fatalities worldwide due to Kindere Suprise eggs which were probably really just unfortunate accidents that, while tragic, will be always a risk with little children when left unsupervised. Three fatalities after literally millions and milions of Kinder Suprise egs were sold to and enjoyed by kids for decades. Kinder Suprise eggs are legally forbidden in US in the name of “protecting the kids” and the ban is strongly enforced.

    Children fatalities of shooting sprees or negligent gun use go into hunderds to thousands each year. And the legislators do not even lift a finger to prevent that.

    The constitution worship has to end. It is unhealthy.

  3. StevoR says

    Reminds me of Bob Dylan’s Masters of War and its lyrics :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mabTnMHe8

    You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly.

    Sums up the NRA well. Though

    You’ve thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world

    Is what first sprang into my mind here.

Leave a Reply