It isn’t fear, not exactly, not yet. But, damn. The heart of these days – still bright but shrinking – being pulled taut and asked to pump blood filled with rising levels of damnation and question. Another homicide. Another set of headlines punched. Our mayor, microphone in hand, standing blocks away just days ago. This neighborhood, my neighborhood, made reflexive by seconds of violence near 15th and E. A trickle of sly blackness reaches in and takes root. One might pose simple questions: What is going on? Are we safe? How to defend, heal, and make our way?