No Ordinary Day Poem by Ellen Shaw

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
a family in pieces
with no way to make sense of this.

You woke up
and I wonder what you thought,
how you felt,
what you saw,
did you think this was an ordinary day?
A day started in the ordinary way?
Did you roll out of bed
and walk barefoot to the shower?
How did it feel?
Any different of just the same?

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
a million questions shouted and whispered
how are we ever to make sense of this?

When did you stop being an ordinary boy?
The ordinary boy who was loved,
cherished and amazingly full of life,
When did you become that
somebody else?
When did the here and now become that
someplace else?
How could I not have noticed
as the world turned upside down
and you were no longer around?

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
everything has changed
you can never be replaced

Can you see your family screaming at the hospital
over come with grief
not knowing what to do?
And can you see your friends
knowing they'll grow without you
ordinary lives, although they'll always miss you,
and can you see me now
writing a poem about no ordinary day
a poem asking why,
why did it all have to change?

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
family and friends in pieces
with no way to make sense of this.

When did we become the people in TV sets?
Crying over the theft of a friend
knowing we'll never see you again,
murder is supposed to happen to someone else
someone faraway
in someone Else's no ordinary day,
it wasn't supposed to happen to you
just starting out to be a man,
it wasn't supposed to happen here
everything was supposed to go to plan.

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
a million questions shouted and whispered
how are we to make sense of this?

What went so wrong?
What ended a life so young?
Why did this no ordinary day
take everything away?
In school we were taught we'd all grow old
live long ordinary lives
and take on the world,
but on this day
we learn a new truth
age is not promised to any youth

Flown away
and made this no ordinary day
everything has changed and will never be the same