209: Cut (it) Short

I wish I could tell my friends

it will never happen to you.

This gut-wrenching

marriage-ending

world-burning

pain, it will

never happen to you.

We wouldn’t let it!

We couldn’t stand for it-

sending your whole heart,

lunch box in hand,

to school on a Monday

and a morgue on a Tuesday.

We would never allow it!

Only we have-

a million different times,

so let’s get to the point.

It could happen to you

and that truth alone

almost does me in,

for if it did happen to you

I would never stop crying.

So I swear I’ll never stop fighting.

I’ll never stop writing

my rage

and my prayers

and my senators.

No parents should ever have to ask-

will it happen to me?

Cut it short.

Cut it short.

The ground is crying out-

cut it short.

Written by Sarah A. Speed // Writing the Good, in response to the Uvalde school shooting.