Poem: When The Next Time Comes

Add 17 more names to our long list

Of students murdered in school

Bow your head

Wring your hands

Offer your prayers

And then forget

Until the next time

Because there will always be a next time

In a violent country like ours

A gun culture

Where the answer is always

More guns

Not less

Calls to arm school teachers

And deploy more police

Will ring out

As will calls to protect

Our sacred right to bear arms

And the names of the victims will be drowned

Out by noise amplified by

dollars

When the next time comes

We can bow our heads

Wring our hands

Offer our prayers

And bury the dead