About the Virginia Tech murders of April 16, 2007

Nor’easter blowing ‘long the coasts
Stirring faint and forgotten ghosts.
Spring on pause as Winter rewinds
Leaving us bewildered in our minds.

April snows tumbling and cherry noses
Merge in the brisk air that God proposes
To give us life – yet within this very hour,
The air is gone…life fades without power.

Within Virginia – hallowed school halls
Noises erupt where student life falls.
End to end – campus covered in fear.
Ricochets echo as gunman draws near.

Shaky cell video revealed the war
Erupting on the campus – native shore.
A new terror arisen on this April Sixteen…
Noises made up for what could not be seen.

Virginia Tech on lockdown – soosh, be still.
Lay silent in your dorm away from window sill.
Pop – pop – pop….those noises, leave my head!
Hard to believe they say 31 are now dead…

Gunman now silenced as bodies are cleared.
Young students traumatized…they ask, “Why here?”
The deadliest school shooting now belongs
To Virginia Tech – silenced are the mountain songs.

Just four days until the anniversary of Columbine
And the nation falls to shock – watching one more time
As young adults falter in the belief they are invincible
For anger rises in those – so quiet…and invisible.

Invisible no more…their legacies will carry on…
Their violence unmatched…their sanity…gone.

©April 16, 2007 Lori S. Maynard
About the shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007