Poets Respond to the Uvalde Tragedy, Part 8
Uvalde: Not What Our Forefathers Intended
By Lita Marie Bonciolini
Unfathomable,
inconceivable.
unimaginable.
Words that completely fail to convey
the horrific actions of a twisted person
against innocents.
No ordinary citizen stands a chance against
a weapon that shoots 60 rounds per minute,
A security guard, armed with a revolver,
could not have prevailed.
How many had already died
before the police arrived?
How many more while they loitered
in hallways, as shots were fired,
and children cried for help?
Why?
The right to bear arms
was intended for citizens
to protect themselves —
not to mow down children and teachers
in their schools.
Why?
We are near speechless
in the face of such bloodshed.
Why? – Anguish and anger
are what we are left with,
and prayers for those
whose lives were taken,
for the husband who died from a broken heart,
and for the living who must endure
the unbearable.
Lita’s poem sums it up, “for the living who must endure the unbearable.” The rhetorical “Why” is never answered as there is no cogent answer. This poem summarizes what many are thinking and feeling still. Thank you, ARTS ALIVE SAN ANTONIO, for publishing it.