Newtown, Connecticut

under street lamps
bodies scurry
are they rats
(I know a woman who kisses her pet rat)
or people mistaken as cardboard,
alienated, walking into the dark,
or six-year olds tossing hopscotch years into the air

we think we see the difference
where there is none
on and on
we thirst for water
mate and die
worry of bills and worn tires
sometimes we kill

first graders shiver in school yards
in Everytown, USA
as we excuse our own violence
as if we have just sneezed

Mary Strong Jackson