Saturday, December 14, 2013

a poem: Trees



Trees

EJ McNellan

April 20th, 1999
I was 5 years old
when the world was shattered
by the sound of a click
and a piercing paroxysm
in a place where books, not bullets, belonged
13 taken

July 20th, 2012
The utterance of that date
sends chills down spines
I was the age of the Columbine victims
and it hit too close to home
I felt the force of the flame
burn the edge of my bubble
Where was Batman?
12 taken

December 14th, 2012
Wounds not yet healed
still seeping
festering
when our children
Our children
the age I was
when our world was awoken
by wilting Columbines
were plucked from space like a burst bubble on a freckled nose
so easily
whisked away
by a wild wind
a wind silent until it shakes the walls
strong enough to break bridges and buildings
But where does the wind come from?
20 innocents
6 angels
and the carefree routines
of 40 devastated protectors
taken

December 13th, 2013
One day less
than a year from tragedy
and a girl
called by the same name as my blood bound sister
feels the fiery force
and messes the covers
of a bed
in a hospital
 where one more bed could have stayed made
her life
rustles in the wind
fragile as an autumn leaf

51 feathers flown
51 bubbles burst
51 fires extinguished
by such little force
and I watch
the nation cry
distraught
by the power of the wind

A wind that surrounds me
Too close for comfort
Why doesn’t the wind want me?
I wonder
When will the wind want me?
the thought sends chills down spines

But
we can plant trees
I waver
and surround our flames with trees

 Let us plant trees

For trees will block the wind
and together, we can plant trees

And surrounded by wood
we will waver no longer with the force of the wind


Friday, January 18, 2013

"A Prayer"



"May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in."

-Mother Teresa