Poets Respond to the Uvalde Tragedy, Part 9
Elementary
By Chivas Sandage
(for Angeli Gomez)
Hearing the supersonic crack
of each bullet rip through the building,
she rescued her two boys
after she didn’t see a single officer inside
after she ran to her sons’ classrooms
after she sprinted to the school
after the police chased her
after she climbed a chain link fence
after she started running
after she convinced officers to uncuff her
after she was handcuffed on the ground by a U.S. Marshall
after she said, “If y’all don’t go in there, I’m going in there.”
after she was threatened with arrest
after she yelled at the police to go in
after police refused to stop the shooter
after she begged the police to save her children
after police refused to enter the school
after she asked the police to go in
after she saw armed officers standing outside
after she parked closer to the school than the police
after she sped at 100 mph back to the school
after her mother called and said there was a shooter
after she drove back to work in the fields
after she put her arms around her boys and smiled for the camera
after her sons said, “Mom, we want to take this photo”
after she resisted being in a photo, embarrassed to be dusty from the fields
after she drove 40 minutes to attend her sons’ graduations
after she worked early that morning in the farm fields.
I cannot stop thinking about the police—
standing outside the school—
who heard the gunshots
but cut the chain link fence
to chase a mother
trying to save her kids.
Powerful poem. I can feel the franticness of the mother. Her desperation to get to her children. To save them. To throw herself between them and flying bullets — I have no doubt she would have, if it had come to that. A poem that leaves many unanswered questions.
How well you captured the mom, the events, the anger and fight of a mother. I’m breathless after reading this.