Warning: this poem deals with the gun violence in schools.
The following poem was written after the murder of children in a mass shooting in Uvalde. Sadly, it could have been written before, but nothing significant had been done to protect these children. When I took the photo of myself at a local art gallery (the piece involves changing the text below I WANT TO BE), it felt like a terrible possibility, but something I knew could legitimately happen. When I left from my last day of teaching, I told my school secretary that the only reason our school, our city, hadn’t had a school shooting was that we were lucky. That’s it. Luck. I post it here near the start of the school year to remind us all of the horrors which could happen at our local school, our local place of worship, or even our local grocery store.
How many times
must we ask
“How many times?”
Is it not the right time
to discuss gun control
after a school shooting?
Mars accepts his sacrifice
of children, thoughts, and prayers
as innocent blood flows.
How long
must we ask
“How long?”
When is the right time
to discuss gun control—
because politicians forget
if too much time passes.
Vulcan accepts his sacrifice
of children, thoughts, and prayers;
and the gun money flows.
When will
enough be
“Enough!”?
Is it not the right time
to discuss your smoking habit
when you start coughing blood?
For a “Christian nation,”
America makes many sacrifices
to not-Christ, to not-Jesus
of children, thoughts, and prayers.
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