Poem for a Sad Week in December

Statue of Grief, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D>C.

At times like these, and there have been too many
Times like these
I would like for time to
Run backwards,
To return bullets to the mouths of guns,
To stream blood spilled on floors
To its rightful place
To pull fully loaded 757’s back from
The Twin Towers,
To reverse all the effects
Of war, famine, pestilence,
Violence, abuse, bullying, ignorance
Racism and apathy
Through millennia
But then
But then
I am broken to remember this:
We live on this side
Of Paradise.

–Dan Verner