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  • May 31, 2025

Poetry Corner: Johanna Ely “I am Tired of Waking Up to the Faces of Dead Children”

March 23, 2018 by Johanna Ely 1 Comment

I am tired of waking up
to the faces of dead children
who smile at me
from the T.V. or computer screen.
I want to tell them they are not dead.
I want to reach down
into the earth
into the ashes
and resurrect them—
pull them up by their bones
and hug them to my chest.
I want to wake them up
and reassure them that
they are only having a nightmare,
that the goul with the gun isn’t real.
I want to check their homework
and make them breakfast,
send them off into sunlight—
tell them I will see them
when they return home.
I want their backpacks flung on the couch
and the kitchen table—
their lives beginning again
with every breath.
I am tired of waiting for gun laws to change.
I am tired of imagining blood on my hands,
these children dying in my arms.
I am tired of hearing their awful silence
explode in my ears.
I am tired of trying to remember
how many there are now—
how every morning
they look at me
and just keep smiling.

Johanna Ely is Benicia’s current poet laureate.

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Filed Under: Features, Poetry, Spotlight, The Arts Tagged With: Friday Poetry Corner, Johanna Ely, poetry, Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

Comments

  1. Fran kiernanbrown says

    March 25, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    Johanna,
    this really grabbed me heart and soul. You have such a special gift. I loveyou

    Reply

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