School Violence Poem by Jim Boone

OMG, did you watch ‘Glee’
On 4/11/2013? Did you? !
Those of us who did, saw what
Gun shots in a school can do
To teachers and students in
A most profound, unnerving way.

How, at such a young age can
You face ‘the end’ of a life that
Is barely begun – how?

As an educator, how do you
Come to super-hero time to
Save your charges who just
Want to graduate and check
Out this life stuff? How do you?

When you collide with ‘the end’
And escape its finality, celebrate
Each emotion that greets you at
The stage door and turns you
Around to meet those who are
Important in your life, and sing,
And say and do what you need to.

School violence is about the drugged
Times that overpower reason and
The arsenal of opportunities to
Acquire secret ends with malice of
No thought, residing in a brain dead
Before the departure of soul, in a coma
Of life without the touch and guidance
That childhood must receive on the
Road to awareness and graduating
Circumstances. Say and do what
You must to nourish and escape
The outcome of darkness into the
Light of education and continuation.

Each soul in human bondage is in
Need of love and strength.

Acknowledge this with each smile,
Each exchange eye-to-eye.


2013



For the families of those killed by gun
violence and the politics that foster
this in schools, and for the writers and
actors who give voice to life so we all
can understand the basics of ‘right’ and
the variables of the opposites.