A Poem for Advent

America 2012

Twenty children were shot
   Charlotte Bacon, 6
and six adults in one of
   Daniel Barden, 7
the greatest tragedies
   Olivia Engel, 6
in American history.
   Josephine Gay, 7
Unfortunately, it was
   Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6
not the greatest tragedy,
   Dylan Hockley, 6
for we have had mass
   Madeleine F. Hsu, 6
shootings in Columbine
   Catherine V. Hubbard, 6
and Virginia Tech and
   Chase Kowalski, 7
Aurora and Portland and…
   Jesse Lewis, 6
The list goes on and on,
   James Mattioli, 6
and while we are sometimes
   Grace McDonnell, 7
speechless and sometimes
   Emilie Parker, 6
saddened, it is never enough
   Jack Pinto, 6
to move us to take action.
   Noah Pozner, 6
We think we are powerless
   Caroline Previdi, 6
against guns, the gun lobby,
   Jessica Rekos, 6
and people who depend
   Aviele Richman, 6
upon their guns to protect
   Benjamin Wheeler, 6
them from fear and pain.
   Allison N. Wyatt, 6
But maybe, just maybe,
   Dawn Hochsprung, 47
this list of dead kindergartners
   Rachel Davino, 29
will be enough to move us
   Anne Marie Murphy, 52
to stop this endless
   Lauren Rousseau, 30
violence. It is within our
   Mary Sherlach, 56
power to do so.
   Victoria Soto, 27
If we want.

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