SCHOOLYARD ATTRITION

by Zackary Ross Wiggs

Illustration by Golden Cosmos, The New Yorker, May 25, 2018

Texas alone has suffered 17 mass shootings this year and now lawmakers propose ‘battlefield trauma care’ facilities in schools. —The Guardian, May 13, 2023

Cut the flagpoles in two,

since they're at half-mast 

all year round

We could use the extra steel

to make more guns.

Build another Arlington,

for the brave school kids

gunned down in math class.

Hallowed ground filled,

with children full of hollow-points.

Too many thousand yard stares.

Bottlecap metals sewn on chests,

of children with kindergarten war stories.

Senior trips to graveside services,

for those gunned down at recess.

Zackary Ross Wiggs is a writer from Southeast Kansas. A recent creative writing master's graduate, when he isn't writing he is usually found absorbed in some show or book. His works have also been published in Unstamatic Press, Shacklebound Press, and The Joplin Toad.