Saturday, August 27, 2022

BULLET-PROOF BACKPACK

by Robin Wright




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 NewsOne ArtAs it Ought to BeThe DrabbleBombfire LitYoung Ravens Literary Review, Olney MagazineRat’s Ass ReviewMuddy River Poetry Review,Sanctuary, and othersShe is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in October of 2020.