the bubble

I was driving First Born Son home from school on Monday and we had a conversation about local repercussions from the horrific massacre that occurred on Friday in Newtown, CT.

When the world darkens

and the sharp objects of tragedy, fear and gut wrenching woe

pierce the collective human spirit, 

can I encase you in a bubble?

Or carry you by the scruff to my bear's den

and stow you away until you are old enough, wise enough

with claws sharp enough

to fend for yourself?

Probably not

You protest attempts to shelter and safeguard

You despair with the rest of us 

but you question

What has really changed aside from a deeper well of sadness?

You recall the night we were driving in a dicey neighborhood

and heard the unmistakable pop

and recoiled at the lightning flash

of gunfire

panicking to turn our car

in the other direction

We weren't in our neighborhood

but we were near your school

you knew it was close enough

it was real

it was always a possibility 

When your Superintendent

orders the mandatory waving of the security wand

over each and every high school student 

entering a Buffalo Public School building

You tell me how even the most brilliant and balanced junior in your class

carries a knife to school

That he threw the knife in the bushes when he heard of the security wands

and fretted all day about reaching the end of the day

when he may not be able to find it

and what he might encounter on the way home

You show me once again that your empathy

has stretched achingly wide

beyond a tragic event that afflicted a nation

you acknowledge your fellow students

who live with the burden of  fear daily

because their neighborhoods 

more unstable than your own

are always shrouded 

in dark shadows

where the threat of violence looms over them 

on a bus ride home from school

a walk to the corner store

across the threshold of their homes

You tell me that to beef up security in our schools

as an answer to the question

How do we prevent what happened in Newtown from ever happening again?

seems as futile as trying to buttress Earth

to prevent an act of nature from inflicting harm and damage

The ideas of safety and security are a thin and fragile veil- 

so too are the membranes of a bubble

I realize that you are old enough, wise enough

with claws sharp enough

But, I will always feel like I am throwing you to the wolves 

each day you walk out that door