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Sunday, December 15, 2013

11,460

by George Held


Children killed by gun violence since the Newtown shooting.
From top: Alton and Ashton Perry, Leonard J. Smith Jr., Aaron Vu; Middle: Trashawn Jaylen Macklin, Tiana Ricks, Mia Lopez; Bottom: Antonio Santiago, Jaiden Dixon, Madison Dolford.
Image source: NBC News


That’s the number of once-living
Innocent persons killed by gunshots
In the year since Adam Lanza

Slaughtered 20 lambs and 6 shepherds
At Sandy Hook School one year ago.
Hard, and maybe futile, to make that

Number poetic. Say it: “11,460”
And by the time anyone might read
This piece, the number will be bigger.

That’s over 31 gun deaths per day,
114,600 per decade, or 10,000
More than the population of Green Bay, WI.

Adam Lanza’s name is immortal,
His victims will soon be anonymous.


An occasional contributor to The New Verse News, George Held occasionally blogs at www.georgeheld.blogspot.com