Optional Poem by Doug Lane

As you know
I'm cancelling
your June 7,2013,
freshman comp final
because there's no sense
giving an in-class final
in freshman comp.

However, a former alumnus,
John Samir Zawahiri,23,
will be coming to
our Santa Monica College campus
to give you
an alternative exam
on that date

after he kills
his brother and father,
Christopher and Samir,
24 and 55 respectively,
a few blocks east
of here
and after
he sets
his father's house on fire

and after he
hijacks a woman
and her Mazda hatchback
and heads west
on Pico Boulevard
towards
the school

and after he stops
at 23d and Pico
and riddles a city bus
with lead
from his AR-15,
slightly wounding
three passengers
but miraculously not killing
anyone inside

and after the passengers phone 911,
alerting campus cops
to be ready for him,
and after he arrives
on campus in the hijacked Mazda
and head shots
a groundskeeper, Carlos Franco,68,
and his daughter, Marcela Franco,26,
just then driving
their Ford Explorer
out of the staff parking lot

and after he walks
the length
of the Liberal Arts Building
and emerges
to fatally wound,
with rounds in her chest and abdomen,
Margarita Gomez,68,
who is picking trash
as is her daily routine

and after
he enters
the main, target rich,
library
and riddles
the locked storage room
behind the librarians' check out counter
wth AR-15 rounds
miraculously missing
all the library staff
hiding inside

and after he turns
to try to kill
as many students
fleeing the library
as he can

and after
he engages
in a gun fight
with 2 campus cops
and 1 Santa Monica cop
and is fatally wounded
with multiple gunshots
in his turn

and after
they drag
the dying shooter
with his still unfired
1200 rounds
outside the library

there his corpse
will lie in wait
on the pavement
to give you
your optional
final exam
should you choose
to take it.