Before
Everything here shines.
Light winks off the polished tile floors
and loafs in cushioned walls
and pours around the arcing library
dancing on the picture books.
Windows are everywhere!
A world surrounded by sunshine,
a transparent place.
Even when Oregon gray fills the sky
light fills these halls.
After
Today
windows are the enemy
Today
light invites death
Today
sunshine leaves us
unprotected.
With every step the outside world
threatens attack.
Every shining tile
is a dead child.
Bullets shatter glass.
Transparent worlds give
no shelter.
Light brings
no comfort.
The hallway has
no end.
I will double-lock my door,
draw the shades and my little ones close.
For the next eight hours,
their lives, their thirty lives,
depend on me to shield them
inside a glass box.
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