And Again in Boston...

I had other, more whimsical posts in mind for tonight, but it seems insensitive, wrong even, to write about trivial things when today's events are so heavy on my heart. What bothers me so much about my reaction to the news is that once I got over the initial impact of the news, I didn't even feel terribly surprised. I don't know if that's a commentary on our country or me or both, but I don't like it. I don't ever want to become desensitized to news like this, or to its causes or effects. Emotions overwhelm at a time like this so, while this isn't my best rhyming work or the smoothest poetry you'll ever read, I hope it captures in some way a little of what I'm feeling.

As I turn on the news today,

My mouth falls open in dismay,

For yet another sad display 

Of senseless violence starts to play.

It's Boston now, reporters say,

The wounded carried off, away

From the bloodied streets, they lay;

To evil's blow they've fallen prey.

What started as a normal day

Instead has changed to disarray,

As those who never planned to say

Goodbye are forced to anyway.

It is impossible to say

The reasons for these acts today.

We cannot explain away

This show hate in full array.

Why someone, somewhere, chose to slay

So many in this senseless way,

Their lives were all cut short today

As sin and evilness portray

The price the victims all must pay.

Their families, near and far away

Are left with ruins to survey,

Find answers in the disarray. 

We know that there's no earthly way

To understand this senseless day,

It's become almost cliche

To hear about days like today.

We wonder how it came to play,

We forward messages to pray,

We try, somehow, in some small way

Our emotions to convey.

They range from anger to dismay,

As we've watched the slow decay.

Actions like the ones today

Were once so rare, now seem "passe"

In "this world we're living in," they say

It is impossible to stray

From the path we're on traveling on, the way

We're going, far astray.

It's "just the way it is," they say,

And violence never goes away;

Must these words ring true today?

Is bloodshed truly here to stay?

I can't answer this array

Of questions, or do much but pray,

But isn't that the biggest way

Anyone can help today?

Forgive my jumbled thoughts, but they,

I hope, just might convey

What I feel and hope and pray

Tonight for Boston, those caught in the fray,

The innocents whose lives today

Changed in an enormous way.  

Join me please, without delay,

And pray His peace will come to stay.

Ash