Saturday, December 14, 2013

Remembering Newtown (Poem)

Remembering Newtown

The pilot whales strand themselves
while a choir sings mass for Mandela.

Tomorrow we'll be stringing lights
in mango trees, shrugging off mourning,

and a Santa in every mall in America
will sit for a picture with a crying child.

The ornaments went up long before
we'd finished picking the meat off

turkey bones and put away our horns
of plenty. There is never enough

time to separate needing from wanting.
Already, ice has ruined Florida's oranges.

Up north we hear reports of small arms
fire cutting short a dream to play in snow.

© Maureen E. Doallas

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing this one. well done.

Laura said...

Oh, Maureen. Heart-broken all over again. How can we forget?

Elizabeth W. Marshall, wynnegraceappears said...

Oh the empathy rising up and flowing down in salty rivulets. Unfathomable grief for the mom's and the dad's. And at Christmas. Thank you Maureen.