There are no words.
Not even thoughts nor prayers
can escape beyond the grief.
Three nine year old Nashville children
could not hold the line
we asked and trained them to do.
The line has grown and stretched
and wrapped itself around
Columbine, Margory Stoneman Douglas,
Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Amish school,
Pulse, Binghampton, Carthage nursing home,
University of Texas tower, University of Virginia,
Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University
Washington Navy Yard, Fort Hood one and two,
San Bernardino, Edmund Post Office,
San Ysidro Mc Donald’s, LA dance studio,
El Paso and Virginia Walmarts, Planned Parenthood,
Birmingham church potluck, Living Church of God,
Sacramento and Texas First Baptist Church,
Tree of Life synagogue, Sikh Temple,
Buffalo and Boulder supermarkets, IHOP
Molson Coors and Hartford Beer,
Fed X, UPS, Xerox, Lockheed Martin.
The list goes on and on stretching ever longer
the lines we should never cross
until lines wrap our feet and ankles
no longer able to march in the streets.
Until lines wrap our hands and fists
no longer able to wrap them around a pen to write new law,
nor lift them in the air with promise to end what we saw.
Until lines wrap around around our heads and stuff our mouths
no longer able to speak out loud, only muffled groans of despair.
There are no words.
There are no words.
There are no words.
But, words have never been enough.
annarino writes 