Another and another

Another
           ridiculous tragedy.
More innocent lives.

Each time,
I find I watch less coverage,
              though, I'd rather not admit that.
                 It's clockwork, now and
seems my hands
                 are, lately, in
                          the air.
                                  I'm wanting to believe in
the there's-more-good theory,
but cynicism shakes
                           his head
                                   and says, ha,
not world
                                                              wide.
But I don't know.
I've never been world wide.
I just have an inkling that America is a
bubble, so we're still
             surprised,
and from the woodwork, comes, not crawling out but
                                                sauntering at,
with a challenge crafted personally,
it seems,
for me,
a friend.  Why, he
asks, are there pleas
for prayer, offered thoughts, but no one asking this: (and here comes the million
dollar question) If there is a God...
...
...
why
would
he
allow. This?  I pause long enough to ponder not
               so much his
point as the point.
      The reason he points it toward
me.
We've had this conversation once before.  Years ago.
I failed then
             to
give a satisfactory answer,
           so wonder if he's
          still wondering
                 or just laying down a trump card.
This
             isn't Heaven, I tell him.
We need to need a God.  Free will, I say.

 Bullshit.

That's his final answer.