Rabbit and Rose
How to explain
to my kids
Orlando
Newtown
Stockton
Montreal
1Pine Ridge
Santa Ana *
They who are still learning
take turns
work it out
be kind
make a better choice
Do I teach them
white supremacy
imperialism
homophobia
misogyny
patriarchy
toxic masculinity
When all I want for them is love?
I want them to know
the dead each
had names
family and friends and pets
they loved and were loved
they dreamt and toiled
they lived and live on
more than
in spite of
beyond
those bullets
that hatred
those words
* See the 1899 Philippine-American war photo of "the insurgent dead, just as they fell in the trench near Santa Ana," https://research.archives.gov/id/524389. My son asked me about this image when he was about 8, and I told him it was emblematic of my family's history as a colonized people.