The Event

By Travis Klempan

“For family and friends with questions about the event…”
Governor Glenn Youngkin, Twitter, 11/14/2022

we have questions for the event,
questions we can’t ask the event,
questions we lob in the general direction
of the event.

because we can’t ask the event directly,
because the event doesn’t stand at a microphone.
it doesn’t take our phone calls or prayers
it just eats them.

we are the family and friends with questions for
the event, strangers and neighbors and family and friends
and when we ask our questions
for the event we are bombarded with silence.

we learn the event will be carried live–
not from the event,
we can’t learn from the event,
we learn of the event each time the event happens.

the event will be carried live in all markets,
across all demographics.
twenty-four seven the event
keeps happening.

the event will be livestreamed
on every device, whether we have a device or not,
whether we opt in or not.
we can’t unsubscribe from the event,
the event is live streamed and broadcast
from every antenna and hilltop,
into every classroom and church
and shopping mall and grocery and
on the beach and the strand and the roads running up,
up into neighborhoods and back to our schools.
the event happens every day,
even happening now as we speak.

we ask the event why:
if it’s carried live and streamed live
why are we dying? who does the killing?

this event won’t stop talking
in bullet points, talking at us,
bullets in five point five six and seven six two
and nine millimeter, how can a millimeter hurt us
and forty-five calibers
and saturday night specials.

we can bring all the flags down
and the event won’t take a moment of silence.
all the moments of silence
added up and the flags taken down,
flags torn into bandages not in silence
but with screams.

because we can’t ask the event directly,
because the event doesn’t stand at a microphone,
it doesn’t take our phone calls or prayers,
it just eats them, along with our children,
along with our futures and pasts unremembered.
the event doesn’t care about humans or babies
the event only eats what we give it.

we have asked the event–
we have begged the event–
and then we realize that events are parts of programs
where is the program, when will the program
end? does it end? the program is made up of events.
that makes it a program
in every sense of the word
program.

****

Travis Klempan is a Navy veteran and Colorado resident. He is the author of the novels HAVE SNAKES, NEED BIRDS and HILLS HIDE MOUNTAINS. His short stories and poetry have appeared in Line of Advance, Bombay Gin, Flyway Journal, and other journals.