by Russell Willis

(In Memory of Those Whose Lives Were Lost in Robb Elementary School)

Ten Is Too Few

Ten is far too few
Nineteen is nineteen too many

Years never lived
Voices no longer heard

Though we can still listen
To words never spoken

And answer with never again
If we but would

Listen and answer
If we but would

And the Other Two

The two who cradled their flock
Who, in a heartbeat would have traded lives
In love, but in vain

Vanity, the silence left in the room after the dreadful pounding
Vanity, the noise heard in every other space when the room was opened
Hope, waiting with growing impatience for imagination to sing 

---

Ethicist, pastor, online education entrepreneur, and poet, Russell Willis, has been published in more than twenty-five online and print journals and eighteen anthologies.  His Christian work has appeared in Agape Review, As Above So Below, Ekstasis, and Faith and Christmas (both anthologies published by THE POET Magazine).  You can access his poetry at REWillisWrites.com