King Park

Another shooting on the southeast side

this a drive-by, midday

Outside of the bus stop by Fuller and Franklin

Or near there, not far from the park

About a block from

where the other shooting was last month

Or was it last week?

Shots were fired from an SUV

heading northbound, Eastown

The target a rival, but they didn't hit the target this time

They hit a kid we think

had nothing to do with it

And I travel backwards through time and space

And I disintegrate, become invisible

I wanna see it where I couldn't when it happened

I wanna see it all first hand this time

I wanna know what it felt like

So I float behind police lines

Reconstruct the scene in fragments of memories

I wanna know what his mother looked like up close

I wanna see her leaning over his body

So I float there, transcend time

I wanna capture it accurately

I wanna know what the color of the blood was

Spilling out from the tarp onto the concrete

I wanna write it all down, so I can always remember

If you could see it up close, how could you ever forget?

How senseless death, how precious life

I wanna be there when the bullet hit

And the crowd poured out

as the shots drowned into siren sounds

Out of their houses now and over front yards

All the way up to the place where

the police tape ran to mark the crime scene

Everybody trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening

Of what was going on between the ambulance and all the cop cars

Everybody gossiping

"Whose kid got hit? Where'd it hit him?

And who could've fired it?"

Everybody wondering

"How did it happen again? And is he dead? These children, our kids"

Everybody wondering

How far they were from where the victims live

And I visit them, their houses, inside my dream I visit them

My spirit, soaring high and high up over King Park

Leaves the crime scene, travels further back

'til far before the shooting

Through their windows, to their living rooms

I see them younger this time, playing games

and doing homework

All these marks of youth soon

transformed coldly into stone

For fights and stupid feuds

for ruins wrapped in gold

And cruelly, I recall why I have come to find a reason

But there cannot be a reason, not for death

Not like this, not like this

Three days later, they made funeral plans, the family

Three days later, a mother had to bury her son

Not far away, the shooter holed up in a hotel

Near to the highway with a friend and the gun

that same gun

He'd fled immediately, but was identified by witnesses

His picture on TV, only 20 years old

They called him "Grandpa"

He was older than the others by a year, maybe two

And he was safe for a while until somebody saw him there

And notified the authorities who surrounded the hotel

First arresting an accomplice while attempting to flee

Then chasing him up the staircase to the floor where he'd stayed

He closed the door hard behind him, locked himself in the room

They could've kicked in the door

but knew the gun was still with him

One he'd already used

and so they feared what he'd do

I floated up through the window of a room to the west

I hovered out to the hallway, tried to listen in

I heard them trying to reason, get him to open the door

His uncle begging and pleading, half-collapsed to the floor

He preached of hope and forgiveness, said

"There is always a chance

To rectify what you've taken, make your peace in the world"

I thought to slip through the door, I could've entered the room

I felt the burden of murder, it shook the earth to the core

Felt like the world was collapsing

then we heard him speak

"Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?

Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?

Can I ever be forgiven

'cause I killed that kid?

It was an accident, I swear it wasn't meant for him

And if I turn it on me

if I even it out

Can I still get in or will they send me to hell?

Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?"

I left the hotel behind, don't wanna know how it ends