SNOW SUNDAY: A POEM FOR SANDY HOOK

22 Dec SNOW SUNDAY: A POEM FOR SANDY HOOK

Like many of you, I was deeply affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last week. I wrote this poem in response to the incident. May 2013 bring a more peaceful world.

Kicking through snow

Newsreel

A week out.
Our minds
Battered by the news:
Twenty children
gunned down
at Sandy Hook

Twenty children
who would be
Practicing to spell
Still, and spot, and
Stop.

Twenty children,
first graders all,
who would be
polishing off
their Christmas lists
Adding a toy or two,
Licking the envelope
Tight. This letter
cannot be lost.

Twenty children
who would be
Sassing their parents,
Grunting out apologies.
Twenty children
who would be
learning to be human.

I’d like to think
Those twenty children
would tell us something,
if they could,

Something about
Savoring your children,
Something about
Scolding me for arguing
With my first grader
About how she’s late
Again.

But really, I think
They’d be too busy playing.
This is the time of year
When new snow falls
And they’d be kicking
Through it, counting
The days until Christmas.