by Andrena Zawinski
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| Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School's 1200 building has been sealed since the massacre on February 14, 2018. On Thursday, jurors in the sentencing phase of the school shooter's trial walked through the undisturbed scene, where the blood of the victims still stains classroom floors. Bullet holes also mark the walls of the Parkland, Florida, school where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members. A lock of dark hair remains on a floor more than four years after the body of a victim was taken away. Valentine's Day gifts and cards are strewn about, as shards of glass crunched beneath of the feet of visitors. These are the unsettling notes from a group of reporters allowed to enter the building after jurors completed their walk-through to provide details to media outlets across the country, including CNN. —CNN, August 5, 2022 |
Bullets,
their brassy caps
glinting golden in the dark
ammo tray tucked under
a student study desk,
more bullets in a bandolier
crisscrossing the chest, bullets
maneuvered across a screen
in slugs of anger and angst
in bullet launchers, landmines
of bullets, bullets of the slain
in a shooting game.
Bullets,
their powder packed cartridges
of panic and fear, hollow points
shattering identities, blasts
sounding in sleep, bullets
of grief from a spray hate.
Bullets
that silence at windows, on lawns,
on street corners, in schoolrooms,
supermarkets, factories, churches,
all turned altars of flowers,
candles, placards, and prayers,
while bullets
fill bank accounts
of makers and regulators
dodging bullets whistling by,
shells jingling in pockets
like loose change spent
in puddles of blood.
Bullets,
their full metal jackets
dug from the corpse
with its legacy of wounds,
bullets that pierced the flesh,
shattered the bone, riddled
the heart and all the wild in it,
depositing dreams
to urns and coffins
buried in holes in the dirt,
screams smothered,
breaths sealed.
Andrena Zawinski’s poetry has received accolades for lyricism, form, spirituality, and social concern. It has appeared in Artemis, Blue Collar Review, Progressive Magazine, Aeolian Harp, Rattle, Verse Daily, The New Verse News, and elsewhere. Her latest collection is Landings. She has two previous award winning books: Something About and Traveling in Reflected Light and a fourth collection, Born Under the Influence, forthcoming in 2022.