Burdened Blessings

Adults… shame on us all for making our children march, for making our children our nation’s burdened blessings.

This poem was originally composed after the Parkland l massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in the wake of student led protests across the nation. In response to the Nashville mass shooting at the Covenent Christian School, we are again seeing it fall to our children -- our burdened blessings -- to fight for their lives and gun control. I decided to adapt the poem so it may speak to all the continuing horror of our children's slaughter.

And a child will lead them… marching

Change is needed… change is coming…

Change is coming in hope with burdened blessings

Children ripped again from childhood

New purpose seared across their souls

Forever changed… in mere minutes and scant seconds

Another mass of lives just torn away

Horrific tragedy now renders

Hope… Change is coming in searing burdened blessings

Adult will frozen in paralytic discord 

Left children to march for our lives

Never another single minute -- no not one second

Change is here, the children decry

“We won’t back down! Enough!”

A Nation’s hope, these beautiful burdened blessings

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Following is “A Simple List” of the names of schools where our children were slaughtered, where “children’s lives were sacrificed on the altar of the 2nd Amendment,” as previously published. “Nothing I could write would even begin to be as powerful a reminder or recrimination.” 

Columbine High School

Heritage High School

Deming Middle School

Fort Gibson Middle School

Erwin High School

McKinley Elementary School

Dimmitt Middle School

Mount Healthy North Junior High

Pioneer Elementary School

Newman Smith High School

Caro Learning Center

Hueneme High School

Osborn High School

Granite Hills High School

Kentwood High School

Santana High School

Monroe City Alternative Center

Wahluke High School

Ennis High School

Raymond High School

John Barrett Middle School

Ambler Avenue Elementary School

Scurry-Rosser High School

West Carter Middle School

John McDonogh High School

Red Lion Area Junior High School

Rock L. Butler Middle School

Burns Middle School

Rocori High School

Lewis and Clark High School

Marion High School

Fay Galloway Elementary School

Columbia High School

Red Lake Senior High School

Farmington High School

Campbell County High School

Pine Middle School

East Chapel Hill High School

Northampton Area Senior High School

Orange High School

Weston High School

Platte Canyon High School

Memorial Middle School

West Nickel Mines School

Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School

Virginia Tech University

Springwater Trail High School

Las Plumas High School

SuccessTech Academy

Northern Illinois University

Stockton Springs Elementary School

Larose-Cut Off Middle School

Deer Creek Middle School

Discovery Middle School

Woodrow Wilson High School

Sullivan Central High School

Socastee High School

Kelly Elementary School

Marinette High School

Millard South High School

Issaquah High School

Chardon High School

Episcopal School of Jacksonville

Oikos University

Perry Hall High School

Normal Community High School

Sandy Hook Elementary School

Taft Union High School

Santa Monica College

Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy

Sparks Middle School

Arapahoe High School

Berrendo Middle School

University of California, Santa Barbara

Reynolds High School

West High School

Marysville Pilchuck High School

North Thurston High School

South Macon Elementary School

William Velasquez Elementary School

Harrisburg High School

Umpqua Community College

Madison High School

Antigo High School

Townville Elementary School

Mueller Park Junior High School

West Liberty-Salem High School

Columbus Scioto 6�"12

Freeman High School

Mattoon High School

Rancho Tehama Elementary School

Aztec High School

Dalton High School

Dennis Intermediate School

Italy High School

Marshall County High School

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Forest High School

Santa Fe High School

Noblesville West Middle School

Dixon High School

North Scott Junior High School

Villa Heights Elementary School

Frederick Douglass High School

Parkrose High School

Wynbrooke Elementary Theme School

STEM School Highlands Ranch

Ladd-Peebles Stadium

Saugus High School

Sacred Heart School

Austin-East Magnet High School

San Diego High School

Forest Lake Elementary

Rigby Middle School

Bethesda Academy

School of the Future

Oxford High School

YES Prep

Edmund Burke School

Robb Elementary School

Covenant Christian School

Here is an infographic of how the poem was originally composed:

Reviews

[emmajoy]

A superb write..SUPERB!

You've sung the song, the anthem for those young people, loud and clear. Needs more voices, more clamour, peaceful but honest, sincere. Your words are powerful and genuinely empathic but have the essential power to create a People's miractle. My absolute respect from a different country but no less loyal to injustice, a lack of diplomacy and the right to bear language as the arms against insanity..

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. Nice turn of phrase: “the right to bear language as the arms against insanity.”

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

In this world today kids wind up missing out on childhood due to all the tragedies perpetrated by adults. I admire them standing up for their futures and safety but it is shame they even have to do it.

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. I agree. It’s a shame they have to do what adults have been unable or unwilling to do. We adults have made our children have to do this – we have made them “burdened blessings” in “six minutes and twenty seconds.”