To the Brokens Hearts in Parkland

It is time now, my darlings, or it will be soon,

that God-awful time, when there is nothing more to keep you busy.

You have loudly vomited your fear, and your  shock.

You have risen up, held a rally, protested, shouted, been applauded.

You have spewed your anger; demanded change!

[NOW, damn it! (Or better yet, make it retroactive, and bring them all back!]

You have sworn by all that is holy, and un, that NEVER shall this happen again.

YOU shall be last to know terror, and shock, and loss, and grief, and the black hole of impotence.  YOU shall be the conscience of the nation.  Amen!

Yet even before you buried your beloveds, before you began your outcry, before you enacted your plans to overcome, yet another shooting occurred.  Yet another bomb went off.  Yet another sicko proudly had his way with the world.  Yet others died.

So now, my darlings,

It is that God-awful time when you must embrace the silence, and find the confidence to get up and dressed, and walk again through the doors of your school, where all has changed, yet hasn’t. Back to what was, but will never be again.  Where life, and your parents, and everyone watching  insist that you get right back to it, certain that you are all strong enough, intelligent enough, determined enough to never falter. Haven’t you said so to the press?

Your names will be remembered, and the cameras will ever be there.  Forget about them.

Be gentle with yourselves.  Do not cower, but find your boundaries, and have them met.

Be a little gracious, when you can bear it.  Thoughts and prayers come in handy sometimes.

Take the rest of your lives to recover.  It will take at least that long.

Broken hearts still function. Guard yours, but keep them open.

Stomachs still growl, feed yours, well and often, preferably with friends and family.

Sleep still comes, be ready.  It may be sporadic, unreliable.

It is important to keep your strength up, because you see, you will NOT be the last.  That chance has already passed. And many of us against whom you rail HAVE seen what you have seen, and we know, beyond despair, that you will live.  Life is rude that way.

Shalom, and shalom.

3/26/18  rJo Herman