Category: arms, guns, weapons

The Origin of Evil

5 May 2023
apocalypsearms, guns, weaponsdeath, mortality, the deadethicsfood, meals, eatingmetaphor, symbolpassagepeace, conflict, warritual, festivaltheoryworldview, ontology
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Long, long ago the first animal ate the second animal. Then the first animal became food for the third animal. All animals hungered, hunted, ate, and became food for other animals. The world was an epic food orgy—a bone-crushing, blood-drinking drama unburdened with self-consciousness or guilt. Over eons and eons animals evolved into primates, then…

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Crowbait

4 April 2023
apocalypsearms, guns, weaponsbodygender, sexualityhealinghumormetaphor, symbolreligion, spiritualityviolence
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by Ronald L. Grimes Shirley snapped the pearl buttons on the cuffs of her ragged western shirt as she stepped out of her Airstream into the dark at Spirit Hill Trailer Park. The gravel crunched under her boots.  A flutter of wings. She stops. Listens. Peers over a clump of scrub oak bushes. Whispers, “Angels…

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Disarming Boys

24 September 2019
arms, guns, weaponscreative nonfictionessays, articlesethicsfamilypeace, conflict, war
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Originally published in The Canopy Review 01 (2019): 10-26. Excerpts read at the Langston Hughes House, Harlem, September 23, 2019. World War II rages as my parents rivet B-24 bombers at Consolidated Aircraft. Home from the graveyard shift, Dad’s teaching me to box. Knees knocked, I’m punching back. Later, he’s equipped me with a toy…

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Reimagining guns

31 January 2019
arms, guns, weaponsart, artistsimagination, creativitypeace, conflict, warreligion, spiritualitysculpturevideo & audioviolence
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Partnering with Irian Fast-Sittler, a blacksmith, to transform a shotgun into a rosebush, Ron Grimes makes a case for reimagining weapons by using popular images to show that the current wave of gun violence is both a religious and imaginative crisis. For a shorter version, focused on the blacksmithing-artistic process, see “MaidenForge.”