Surely

In remembrance, and in honor of, the children and educators we have lost through the tragedy of school shootings. Our community of Placerville lost a beloved principal, Sam LaCara, two years ago in a tragic shooting on his elementary school campus. It is hard to accept how familiar this sort of destruction has become.

This week will mark three months since the shooting at Sandy Hook.  My heart is heavy as I think of the parents, teachers, children and all those who loved each precious individual they lost that day.  My prayers are with you as you grieve.

Surely,  we can do better for our little ones.

 

SURELY

Surely, bullets ravage and wreck.

Ripping through reality,

Rendering innocence lost.

 

They silence playful voices,

Still small, active hands,

Before their young words or work

Can finish growing.

Words and work that might have had healing in them

For this ailing world.

 

Bullets tear through a family,

Leave them struggling to breathe.

Grief knocks the wind clean out.

Familiar words like “we” and “us”

Are fractured beyond recognition.

 

Little things like pajamas and backpacks,

Once common and constant,

Lie about tragically unused.

Become heartrending monuments to the innocent.

Surely we can put a stop to this.

 

Can we find no way to shelter

These, our little ones, our future?

Those who invest such trust in us,

Who simply are where they are

Because we told them so?

Surely we can find a way.

 

And whether or not we can determine or agree upon

Much about the nature

Of the flawed and lost who rain down this terror,

Can we not gather in and heal these hard broken

Before they wander to such realms of disconnect, delusion

That they cease to discern the sacredness of existence?

Surely we can.

 

In such a wounded world as this,

So in need of shelter and security,

God protect the playful voices

And the small active hands.

Watch over the innocent.

Help us.

 

Surely, we can do better.

Surely, we must.

 

kerry peterson   January 2013