Poetry

Fibonacci Blue photo

By

Michael Taggart

Let Me Tell You

Let me tell you

what it’s like

to look into your students’ eyes

and tell them

if they are in the bathroom

when the shooting starts

you’ll have to lock them out

Let me tell you

what it’s like

to imagine taking a bullet

for a child in your care

or worse

trying to take a bullet

and failing

It is like

every window breaking

and every door tearing away

as a tornado

erases your home

It is like

looking in the mirror

after your first grave sin

knowing your face

will bear that shame

forever

It is like

staring down the barrel

of a loaded gun

not knowing whether to

scream

or pray

or fight

Michael Taggart

By day, Michael Taggart is a technology educator. By night, he trades code for poems. Although he’s been out of the game for a while, his self-published novel The Lineage Cycle is available now. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles.