Are you crying?
I am.
Weeping.
For the seven- and eight-year-olds
Whose lives have been snuffed out.
Like flickering candles
Their lives cut short too soon,
Young ones who believed in magic
And still loved balloons.
Weeping.
For the parents who sent their kids
To school, lunch bags full of love,
Who gave them a gentle shove
As they kissed their tumble-haired
Boys and girls goodbye.
Never in a million years
Did they think this would be
the day their little one would die.
Weeping.
For the classmates who survived,
trauma etched in tender grooves
Of their malleable minds,
Now caught in a bind,
Innocence surgically sliced out
And removed.
Weeping.
For our nation.
Who are we?
Who have we become?
And why are we so numb?
Hate crimes fill the headlines,
Fear lurks at our doors.
How can we pick ourselves
Up off the floor and be the change
As Gandhi said, before so many more
Are dead?
Still, I weep for those in Buffalo,
Just ten days ago. Ten dead then,
So many more today.
Hate crimes fill our times.
We must investigate our own hate,
The way we get irate, hesitate, don’t step
In and up to the plate.
These are not times to sit back and relax
Look the other way. It’s time to advocate,
Legislate, have a say.
It’s time we ask ourselves who we
Want to be.
What Kind of world am I creating?
What kind of world do I want to see?
The one I imagine is still one full of love,
Where I offer you the right of way,
Or perhaps a sorbet, or an invitation
To come and play, all day.
Join in and create the world you
Want to see, right here, right now,
Become who you want to be.
(Tribute to Uvalde, May 25th, 2022)
written by Diane Sherman
Listen to it here:
https://youtu.be/SyOG0oh5jKc