by Rachel Mallalieu
My son, a newly minted freshman, regales me
with tales of high school. There are pickleball
courts and the teachers are cool and the tacos
in the cafeteria aren’t that bad. Some of the varsity
basketball players already know his name.
He doesn’t think he will ask a girl
to Homecoming this year. There’s just one thing
that’s bothering him. They take our phones
at the beginning of class. How will I say
I love you when someone shoots up the school?
Rachel Mallalieu is an emergency medicine physician and mother of five. As such, she deals with both the fallout and fears surrounding gun violence regularly. Rachel is the author of A History of Resurrection (Alien Buddha Press 2022). Some of her recent poetry is featured in Superstition Review, Chestnut Review, Rattle and Whale Road Review.