I wept today, as I wept yesterday,
The horror and the rage too hot to last.
I wept for shame , because I'd held at bay
The tears for all the others in the past.

I wept as I prepared to go to bed.
A decade-old T-shirt tossed idly by.
At half that age a score of children dead,
And selfish, ancient me too scared to die.

I wept for every time the wheel has turned,
For every school and mall and waiting queue,
For every man who wants his bridges burned
Before the bullets come pay him his due.

I wept, because God loves the blameless child,
But how He must abhor what they become.
The shooter, yes, but also we defiled,
Who could take action but instead stand dumb.

I wept for those in power whose job entails
Ensuring peace, at least until the vote.
Whose courage, if it risks their station, fails.
Who will not change their dogma by a mote

So pick a side, it matters not who for,
Pro gun or not, it circles endlessly.
A new year dawns, blood-red like those before.
I weep for all the victims yet to be.