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Monday, April 30, 2018

THE STUDENTS WALK OUT ANYWAY

by Lois Rosen


Nate at Instagram


Although a Needville, Texas principal
threatens suspension,

though parents in Billings, Montana warn
they’ll ground their kids,

though the NRA tweets an AR15 photo
I’ll control my own guns, thank you,

though South Carolina Governor McMaster
calls the walkout left wing and shameful,

though the church shooter’s sister hisses
I hope it’s a trap and they all get shot,

students join hands, make speeches,
chant, read victim’s names,

hold signs sob, pray, stand silent
for six minutes. There are no words.


Lois Rosen won Willamette Writers’ 2016 Kay Snow Fiction Award. The Rainier Writing Workshop awarded her an MFA and a Debra Tall Memorial Scholarship. Her poetry books are Pigeons (Traprock Books, 2004) and Nice and Loud (Tebot Bach, 2015). Lois’s writing has appeared before in TheNewVerse.News. Her story “The Hollywood Life” was performed at the inaugural Liars’ League PDX.