Thanks to Mr. G



It was a balmy April night.
John G had planned that whole dance all just right.
Young teenage hearts were taking flight,
And satin dresses were shimmering bright.

So almost everybody very happily
Danced to those final songs
And were just glad to be
Part of the scene, so they all said Thanks to Mr. G.

But there was one kid at that dance
Whose mind was walking a tightrope of chance,
And with a handgun stashed in his pants,
The last thing Andrew could feel was a romance.

Then as the mirrored ball sent diamonds round the room,
Some guys were outside chillin’.
Still, no hint of doom
Was in the air when they got called in by Mr. G.

So tell me, who knows why?
Just what drove Andrew to do this deed?
Oh no, and please, don’t even try
To say he’s just some demon seed.

Did Andrew, in his darker musings,
Feel only he was ever losing?

So, on that dark back porch
A spark became a torch.
In Andrew’s mind it flared,
And maybe he got scared,

Losing his grip on all but his gun.
Dark ruminations finally won.
When John appeared, it unbalanced him
On a tightrope already too slim.

Andrew fell off his wire,
And then he point blank fired.
His world became unreal;
He lost all sense to feel
A thing besides the gun he shot at Mr. G.

That panic tore through Andrew and died
Along with John. Then, he went inside.
They hit the floor—no place to hide,
But his rage was gone, so those last shots went wide.

John took the fire from Andrew’s insanity,
So it claimed no young lives.
You can be sure John G
Would want it just that way,
So I say Thanks to Mr. G.

It was a balmy April night.
Oh tell me, who knows why?

About this poem

John Gillette was shot and killed by Andrew Wurst at a school dance he had organized on April 24, 1998. Throughout his life until the moment of his death, John had lived a life of quiet, altruistic heroism, as all who knew him knew he was a salt of the earth man who wouldn’t hesitate to take the shirt off his back to help his fellow human if needed. I strongly believe John’s death is actually an act of unintentional heroism, as it prevented the deaths of students, who were definitely his killer’s intended targets. I wrote this song to express this belief and other feelings I have about this tragic event as best I could. 

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Submitted on October 26, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:33 min read
9

Quick analysis:

Scheme Aaaa bxbb ccxc dedb fgfg xx hhii eejj xxkkb llll bxbxb Af
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,574
Words 313
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 2

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