The American Gun

The American Gun is a poem in ten parts delving into the modern phenomenon of mass shootings in the United States. It's a narrative account of a young teacher in NYC wrestling with the reality of American gun culture. From the classroom to the subway platform, The American Gun is a meditation on tragedy and what it means to live in a country where domestic terrorism is a constant threat. Femiani's poetry illuminates what the media cannot: the residuals of monumental loss, months and years after the fact, in the face of an unyielding "democracy" unable to protect the lives of its citizenry and its children.