Though hindsight’s a convenient tool,
we surely can agree,
it’s never once succeeded in
averting tragedy.
Yet in the frenzied aftermath
of any senseless shame,
The public cry is ever quick
to ration guilt and blame.
With social outcasts, misfits, on
the surface looking calm,
the countdown’s always running on
a ticking human bomb.
Do you suppose we’d recognize
them in our neighborhood?
How many kids in classrooms fit
the profile now, or could?
With senses shocked beyond belief,
no words can help in numbing
the pain of loss, much less the cry
“You should have seen it coming.”
———
1999 Mary Boren
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