Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Sandy Olson-Hill

Newtown Anniversary

(Dec 14, 2012)

And this is how to

sleep sons & dream daughters

more gun in a million to come

punctuate bullet heart bliss

bone trivial business, this

God, it is said, calls stars by their names

the dead by their numbers

rage to reconcile

locked & loaded boy of fire

want on twenty-six

stars tuck their white into morning

fold the night into shattering

all you daughters

of light, of sons, of dawn when

heaven aims to make the angels pay

and this is how the world aches

how day subtracts

how night anticipates morning

breaks the earth

round as the moon is the sun

is the morning inside out night

number the names rising

of the dying sound the stage, note

the song, the slain

consider the day of the gun

is a bastard

when a bastard

call their names, count

their numbers, listen, there is

reason, rumbling rivers, open spaces, there

is singing in high places, waters where

air’s like a prayer come and gone

& bone done under the gun

means to blood the sun & the water

talks

of slaughter, where the children run

the land, the sea, where the wind cries

for all who seek why

bring a mountain to its knees

just to make the morning mourn

make the world weep

lay out every heart when the day lays down

daughters & sons sleep

under a new town, under a new sun

burns the rain clean, it is said, every

cloud thunders where the river runs red

no more

And I have heard the water calling every fallen star

no more

& every stone numbers a new dawn

a new day answers

for each, it is said

when the water calls your name

every drop of rain rises again.

Sandy Olson-Hill

Sandy Olson-Hill and her daughter were born in Ct. Hill is now a VSAFL teaching artist. Recent publications include Anomaly, Gulfport 2016 Poetry Anthology, RedPaintHill, among many other fine literary journals. Awards include Academy of American Poet’s Prize, Open Doors Short Fiction Award Nominations: Million Writers Award and Best of the Net. Hill resides with 5 rescue cats and hopes to rescue many more.