Another Shooting — poem

This piece discusses gun violence, mass shooting, trauma & death.

It was originally published on my Twitter account here.

You will wake to news of another shooting

Another [person/s] murdered people while you were sleeping

Another [person/s] took the lives of people whose names you will read, whose pictures you will consume with greed and loss and hope and numbness

You will cry

Or you will clench your jaw and move on to your morning coffee

Are you desensitized yet?

While you were sleeping

First responders woke up and pumped chests and breathed breaths

And watched deaths

Trauma

While you were sleeping

Law enforcement followed protocols for mass shootings they knew they would never have to witness

Trauma

While you were sleeping

Doctors and cops and EMTs desperately wanted to wake up from a nightmare

Trauma

Children lost fathers

Husbands lost husbands

Mothers lost daughters

Dogs lost humans

Trauma

While you were sleeping

Faces of survivors gleamed in the dull light of numb shock