a poem: Trees

Trees

EJ McNellan

April 20^th, 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 20^th, 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 14^th, 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 13^th, 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

"A Prayer"

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

-Mother Teresa

"From the Ashes"

"Hat"

"Beating in Unison"