This poem I wrote about the school shootings epidemic in the USA was published in Poetry24.co.uk:
That Mother
Do not place in her lap −
the irredeemably stained book bag,
the unbitten golden crisp apple,
the sticky wads of molten Wrigley’s,
the half-written Renaissance essay,
the earmarked and penciled-in Odyssey,
the infinite Java loops screaming ‘Hello world! ’,
the unanalyzed data of Simple Harmonic Motion,
the patriotic tunes stuck inside the trumpet,
the Vainglory demanding the next move on the iPhone,
the plastic ID displaying the year of graduation
the deluge of thoughts and prayers of effect unseen.
Do not send her contents of the locker −
She is a mother. That mother.