Classroom Essentials

I should probably get cabinets.

Why don’t I have any cabinets? Right now there’s just desks and a couple big tables, but there’s no substantial hiding places for the 35 hearts in the room. Where would I hide them? What would I do if someone came into the room and took half of them?

After the Pulse Nightclub shooting in June 2016, I started writing poems after every mass shooting. I now have a notebook full. I’ve never shared any because it felt, for lack of a better word, icky. This isn’t a poem. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sad and I’m angry and this is the only way I know how to mourn these students who could have been mine.

An attack on a school is an evil I can’t even find the words to explain. If students aren’t safe in the place that they are required by law to go every single day, then where can they ever feel safe? I don’t know the shooter and I don’t know his name, but he took everything. He took their learners’ permits and corsages. He took their boredom and their light bulb moments. He took their coaches and their teachers and their friends.

Assault and defend are antonyms. Assault and defend are antonyms. Assault and defend are antonyms.

Do I need to get cabinets?