After Parkland, Florida
as the sheriff counts Florida’s mass shootings, this is just Florida
recall by memory alone that list of all the schools through all the years
in your head should ever be will I see you again? as you say good-bye to your teenager who shrugs a backpack over her shoulder
stand over the corpse of a child you yanked out of the way of a speeding car as a toddler and do not know how to bury him
pray on your knees in a bank lobby that your cell phone will buzz with text
wrap shaking arms around a sobbing daughter splattered with a friend’s blood
breathe in and out your compassion for those who lost their heart center
contain the outrage that children die because anyone can buy the weapons of war
that a war of retribution rages inside young men who lust after weapons of war
excuse who is responsible for allowing access to assault rifles
remember it was your town, your mall, your community college just months ago
record the passion of the crow mob that chases the red tail hawk to the next neighborhood
measure the up-and-down-scale trills of the orange-crowned warbler wintering over in Florida as it eats from the underside of leaves