Tiny Tombstones by Karen I. Shragg
Tiny tombstones dot the landscape
But I refuse to be numb
There isn’t enough granite in the world
To make room for my grief I must experience anew
With enough disgust and embarrassment for good measure.
The dash between their years inexcusably close together.
They weren’t allowed to live long enough to have done much
But break our hearts at their sudden annihilation,
woven into our now common, eerie tapestry
We have to own and quit denying
That our finger of inaction was on the trigger too.
Each murderous thread woven with our love affair with guns
and the elevation of the 2nd amendment beyond its intentions.
Teachers who signed up only for low pay and long hours
forced to be heroes by those who offer them more weapons as a patronizing answer that will only keep lining the pockets of those whose blood-stained hands cannot be washed clean with platitudes of thoughts and prayers.
Whose deaf ears refuse to respond to those who scream to sign up for the real solutions already in the pipeline from countries
Whose leaders aren’t funded by the weapon salesmen
Whose guilt hasn’t found an escape hatch
Paved with self-righteousness and twisted Christian values
Just to keep their party in power
At the price of keeping the orders coming in
for more tiny tombstones.