Second Day of Mourning

The second day of mourning is always grey,

When the grandeur of elaborate pain

Fades into a comprehensible dawn.

The asthmatic morning laboured to wheeze a few

Competent breaths to last from bus to school.

A grim visage canopies a lurching heart that still stumbles

In the quicksilver and endless corridors of remembering.

Mourning seems such a vain thing.

It cries aloud to be seen, solicits pity with

Conscious tears and wanton dysphoria,

Damns an implosion with a paradoxical front.

Trudging up the overhead bridge that prevent dented fenders

And stubborn bloodstains on the roads,

The sweaty morning clings onto my skin and sorrow

Weighing with the symbolism of exertion.

Gaston Ng

This post will be brief for there are no words that can aptly express the sense of  grief and shock regarding the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. The pain is real. For those of us who are parents, it is not too hard to imagine what it would be like to lose your child in such a violent and unexpected way. Our children are gifts that we give to ourselves. When they are taken from us, a big part of us goes with them.

Let us all hope and pray that this brutal incident will lead to a seismic shift in our culture and its glorification of violence. Too many lives have been  lost and we need to find ways to prevent carnage like this from happening again. Turn off your television,your computer, your cellphone. Throw out those video games, call your Senator and Representative so that common sense changes to our gun laws can be made. Spend time with your children. Read books together. Go for a walks. Play. Stay connected and pay attention to one another. Twenty-four people per day are victims of gunshot violence. There have been sixty-two incidences of mass killings in this country since 1982. It is time for all of us to start demanding a change.