Sunday, June 12, 2016

I dream I am running, lost, terrified, through a darkened, unpeopled cityscape…

Stanley Almodovar III, 23; Amanda Alvear, 25; Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26; Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33; Antonio Davon Brown, 29; Darryl Roman Burt II, 29; Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28

I turn in my sleep, struggling to cast myself in another drama while 2,200 sky miles 2,500 road miles away at a nightclub called Pulse…

Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25; Luis Daniel Conde, 39; Cory James Connell, 21; Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25; Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32; Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31; Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25

sudden lurch from many voices raised above hard-driving music to gunfire chaos and then…

Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26; Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22; Paul Terrell Henry, 41; Frank Hernandez, 27; Miguel Angel Honorato, 30; Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40

the silence of those hidden from sight and those sprawled in the languorous poses of death…

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19; Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30; Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25; Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32; Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21; Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49; Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25

a gun and a man behind a gun with no expression on his face waiting with terrible patience to continue…

Kimberly Morris, 37; Akyra Monet Murray, 18; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20; Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36; Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32; Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35

I wake up not long after dawn, ease myself into another overcast day, sip my morning coffee, flip an egg without breaking the yolk, munch on toast, avoid the news until…

Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25; Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27; Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35; Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24; Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24; Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34; Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33

plants watered, dishes washed, dog walked, I pick up the remote, half-watch as…

Martin Benitez Torres, 33; Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24; Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37; Luis S. Vielma, 22; Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50; Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37; Jerald Arthur Wright, 31

the TV weather reporter, hair extensions draping her breasts, predicts a perfect 72-degree high and then…

Breaking news: An American-born man who had pledged allegiance to ISIS gunned down 49 people early today at a gay nightclub in Orlando. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States, the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11

The sun came out late in the afternoon; pink clouds smudged with gray at sunset.