By Kyle O'Connor, MSU student and State News Sports Reporter

The State of Shock has a

sense of humor

in the saddest of moments.

It’ll approach you unwarranted

if alertness fails you.

Year after year,

faulty higher-ups

sternly say

“We need to do something about this.”

but never know what that “something” is

This lack of “something”

keeps me in my locked dorm room

with the lights off

my dresser barricading the door shut

and a police scanner reporting live

as red and blue lights illuminate the darkness of my room

from the window

while hearing helicopters

fly above me.

What seems like a warzone

infiltrating the university I love,

that my dad loved,

that my uncle loved,

that my cousins loved.

They say

a college degree

is a bridge to

a successful life.

What shall I do,

when that bridge

is marked by yellow police tape,

crying students,

as a murder scene?

America,

if I should be a student,

to unlock the success

of the American Dream,

so be it.

I don’t mind.

But

at least make my surroundings

somewhere that

I don’t have to check

where the exits are

just in case

the State of Shock

visits me once more.

SPARTAN STRONG