Less than a Week Later

I wrote this shortly after the tragedy in Orlando. I had to write something or I would burst with too many feelings I could not voice.

How did I first hear
of the tragedy of so many lost?
Was it by a neighbor I passed on my morning walk,
or in the whisper of a nightmare
that awoke me at 5am?
I listen to no news reports
nor take a morning paper.
Still,
when it strikes,
the 15th event, so I'm told,
in one Presidency,
the news finds me,
as if I must know
what none of us wants to know.

And so, I pass it on.
Not as a blessing,
which would be my normal custom
on a Sunday morning,
but as an alarm still ringing . . .
After the fire has swept every pillar of a house away.
After the emergency vehicles have sped to hospitals,
and news reporters scooped the eye witness accounts.
It is no less shocking or heart-rending when
the tragedy is "contained".

50 souls have left the earth before their time,
All at once.
Not through war or noble sacrifice.
Not through storms or earthquakes,
tornadoes or hurricanes.
Not by plague or disease.
All these have their warning bells,
Red Cross stations and volunteers
clamoring to prevent
loss of life.

This came suddenly,
like a dark strike out of a black sky,
an ominous spaceship appearing in one moment
as we of the earth freeze and look up.
It is the stuff of nightmares and horror stories.
Not of our reality.
Not of the waking life where we rise
and eat breakfast,
dress for work or church,
and go about our ordinary day.

And so,
I tell others.
Not to glory in the details
or even share my sudden shock.
But because I cannot believe
I A m A w a k e
And if I am,
Why are we not collectively stopping . . .
Wherever we are
Whatever we're doing
Whoever we've become . . .
To notice?
Why do we simply go on?
Why do we just
Go on?

Author's Note

This is a poem meant to be read out loud, with changes in tone of voice. It isn't meant to be silently taken in where it could simmer or haunt. The events do enough of that on their own, and I do not want to add to that pain.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

the news just tells these stories to death, they seem to thrive on the morbid---i don't think any credit should be attributed to those who do these things...there should be silence...

all of them trying to get their 15 minutes of fame...it is an ill fame...they don't deserve the attention, and it is a sad world where one mass murderer tries to outdo the next.

they should never mention any of them by name---just honor the victims...

it just keeps getting worse every day...and happens with such regularity...

j.

[Marianne Rose]

Yes- pictures and sounds over and over again, and the true essence of what is causing this increase in violence gets no attention. Just more controversy over guns/no guns, how to deal with terrorism, etc. we have lost the ability as a culture to go deeper into why these things really happen, and what we can do to shift the spiraling paradigm we're living out. Thank you for continuing the dialogue and speaking your heart.

[Nessly]

"This came suddenly,
like a dark strike out of a black sky,
an ominous spaceship appearing in one moment
as we of the earth freeze and look up."

These lines describe so perfectly what it's like to undergo a sudden tragedy. It's dark, sad, and overpowering. I think we go on because that's all we know to do. Nothing can ever right our wrongs.

[Marianne Rose]

Thanks so much for reading and getting it. I go on too- the helplessness traveling with me. I just wonder, what would happen if one day we refused to go on? Maybe the helplessness would fade and we actually could do something. Seems pretty impossible, right?

[Nessly]

Right. I think some tragedies are so hard to rise above and overcome. For some, it may take years, While others may never fully recover.