Day 5 PAD 2023

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised. 

“Lockdown in Nebraska”

A scheduled practice drill.
Lights. Locks. Out of Sight.
Stay silent to save us
from death on the other side of the door.

But the students can’t help whispering
about yesterday when a nearby
small town school didn’t have
a scheduled practice drill.

A stranger appeared on school grounds,
holding true to a threat they sent
on social media - the school went;
Lights, Locks, Out of Sight.

My administration pulls the fire alarm.
Someone knocks - pleads to come in.
I motion to the students with my hand,
stay silent to save us.

I can’t help but feel disheartened
in the darkness of my own classroom.
I do not know how to protect us
from death on the other side of the door.


Poetic Form: Cascade

And Like That

And Like That

And like that

  a student from the past

    no longer has a future

A young man in my memory

    grown to be a farmer and family man

I remember 

    a boyish grin above

    a home jersey with the number 5

    an underclassman

    waiting for time to give him his chance

I would chat with him on the sidelines

    about the last play

And like that

I can see that smile as his bride walks down the aisle

I can imagine the smile he had for the birth of his children

Or the long gaze to the horizon

    on a late autumn evening

The wheels of his tractor still

pride of a good life flowing through his veins

    warming his callous hands

That innocent smile

    creeping onto his face

    as he shifts the tractor into drive

Heading home to eat dinner with his wife 

    and three kids

And like that

Tonight there will be no smiles

The horizon will receive too many questions

    centered on why he was taken

    why daddy isn’t coming home

   

And like that

Family will come together

Only to feel a shocking sense of being alone

Every word they wanted to say

    sets like the sun at the end of the day

Every possible

    I love you

    and good night kiss

Will feel like a heavy coat of regret

Pockets empty

    like the tomorrows he no longer has

And like that

His family will stuff their hands deep into that sorrow

Hoping to find something

anything

     to remind them of his voice

And like that

We are all left with memories

Mine of a boyish grin

on the sideline of a football game

years ago

*In memory of Bryce Niss 11-17-2020