By Charles Rafferty
1. Children Could Become Maniacs (Columbine)
That’s what I learned
from the radio
as my daughter
drank her bottle.
2. Question (Sandy Hook)
What kind of gun
laws would we have
if 26 senators died
crouching in their offices
while the sunlight was
dazzling the pens
upon their desks?
3. Why You Died on a Wednesday Afternoon (Marjory Stoneman Douglas)
There aren’t seventeen
words to explain it. History
was being taught
without irony
somewhere inside that building.
About the Author
Charles Rafferty’s most recent collections of poems are The Smoke of Horses (BOA Editions, 2017) and Something an Atheist Might Bring Up at a Cocktail Party (Mayapple Press, 2018). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, O, Oprah Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and Ploughshares.
Bullets into Bells 