No one can take glory in the death of a child.

I have an eight-year-old brother and a three-year-old goddaughter, and I, like countless others in this world, was horrified to hear about what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary. As the caregiver of a child at one time, I cannot imagine what it would have been like to fear that your precious child was murdered. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have been told the horrifying news. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the law enforcement personnel to have to care for those sweet little children and the brave adults who tried to preserve them postmortem. I can only hope tragedies like this can be prevented in a lasting manner so no more parents have to bury their little ones.

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“They Were Babies”

For the ones we lost and the ones we have

Grief hangs heavy, a pall in the cold
Questions rend the air with nowhere to land
The cherished ones can offer no insight
Because their worldview was awash in purity
They were babies, so they will never know

The coroner gives his remarks, thick with emotion
No one can quite bear the sight
Of little ones marred in senselessness
What they could have been haunts the macrocosm
They were babies, so we will never know

Teddy bears sit in vigil, dolls pose disconsolately
Parents stare at the places they occupied
Hearing the phantom echo of their laughs down the hall
Wondering how the next generation would have emerged
They were babies, so they will never know

He curls into me, wanting security
If ever came that moment
I stood between him and Death I would fight
So that he would walk in my stead
He is a baby, but not forever I hope

She tugs on my sleeve, wanting a story
I assure her the monsters are gone
And yet, they are out there and I have fibbed
So she could walk in sunshine and not fear
Because she is a baby, and I never, ever want her to know