First day of school, pens, pencils, notebooks,
scissors, crayons, lunch bag, corralled and ready,
along with fear, anxiety, worry.
Parents hopeful—not their children’s school,
not their children’s lives on the next segment
of the news with police interviews on who, how many.
I watch a video of a mother teaching her child
what to do in case a shooter appears at school,
run to the corner, curl up behind his backpack.
Do not let anyone tell him he doesn’t need
this small wall of protection. She instructs him
on what to say, NOTHING.
She tells him, be small, be quiet, run if you can.
I will find you. Yes, I will find you,
wearing your Spiderman backpack.
Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in The New Verse News, One Art, As it Ought to Be, The Drabble, Bombfire Lit, Young Ravens Literary Review, Olney Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, Muddy River Poetry Review,Sanctuary, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in October of 2020.