In memory of Charlie Kirk

For Charlie
by Matthew Mehan

A partisan becomes a man for all
when the part of him that hates his foe can fall
away to nothing more than a tremor in the throat.
Together let us learn the lesson by rote:
The turning point for all our hopes of parley
begin with Love and Church and now with Charlie.

*****

In Memoriam
for Charlie Kirk

Under a technicolor Utah sky, in the clear September air,
in the commons made uncommon, a man spoke
through riptides of Babylonian confusion, and he spoke
with the light of the Word of Life, and that light
dispelled the darkness that cannot comprehend its truth.
In the clear air, the bright and open air, a man spoke —
and as the sky cracked to silence him
how many mouths gasped at once, a terrible hush
like a rogue wave crashing. But he was not silenced.
The assassin slithered into ruin. But he was not silenced.
His words extend now into time, in concentric circles, further
than before — and further still. Martyr for truth, and in truth, alive.
America, may the Holy Spirit inflame and guide our tongues, and
let everything that breathes praise the Lord.
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.

—Joseph Massey

Original artwork: Leigh Brown. Charlie Kirk, 2025. Graphite, charcoal, acrylic, ink, and pastel on heavyweight archival cotton paper. 11x14"