Leslie McGrath: An Anniversary

(Newtown, CT December 14, 2012)

Cue the half-mast flags sagging

eleven listless days before Christmas

and the entreaties to return to our senses.

It takes nearly a month, an advent calendar

of griefs, to pay homage to each of our twenty-six.

And in other towns, other states, other guns

other massacres…

The age of murder is upon us.

What is there to do but straighten our shoulders

and dip our heads for this moment of silence

efficiently, indifferently, like a cat

washing blood from her face?

Copyright 2016 Leslie McGrath

Leslie McGrath’s poetry collections include Opulent Hunger, Opulent Rage published by Main Street Rag.