Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Alejandro Escudé

To Come Back To A Shot Up High School

It must be the walls are as if covered in blood,

Names stenciled in their minds, Loesch and LaPierre,

CNN, AR-15—my pain, they may think, my world.

Hallways pink from the indissoluble, like markers

They use to produce student government posters,

Pep rally theme signs, perky holiday advertising.

It must feel like a pristine fishbowl in their classrooms.

And time must be stifling, summer school stifling,

Like wearing three tear-soaked robes and a garment

Of sadness. Infatuations gone, like people coupled

A long time. Is there even a big game announcement?

Each student shadow gloomy and slim as a rifle,

Rifles trailing rifles. The freshly killed, still still.

Habitual nooks, now tentative, forbidden, shrill.

Alejandro Escudé

Alejandro Escudé’s first book of poems, My Earthbound Eye, was published in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.