CC image courtesy of Flickr, Sally Crossthwaite. Content Warning: gun violence, mass shooting Laurie Works is a homeschool alum, community organizer, and spoken word poet. She is also a mass shooting survivor. In December 2007, two of her sisters, Rachel and Stephanie Works, died during the New Life Church shooting in Colorado Springs. This poem is her reply to the shooter,
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“‘Bless us, Oh Lord…’ we all sit to pray, / But you neglected to do it well.”
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“‘We have to stand on the Bible,’ you said, / And nothing I can say will convince you.”
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“Is it love, or something very different?”
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We are / the children of green pastures, / our hearts’ deep waters roiling / with questions we / are not allowed to have.
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“Be careful / if you plan to raise an army / from birth / whip them into shape and drill them / Issue uniforms / Issue thoughts…”
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“I could never be good enough, godly enough / To gain my parents approval, / But earning a spanking was too easy, I didn’t have to try. / Now I punish myself / for things not my fault.”
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“Somewhere I went blind in the conversation — / somewhere between the epidermis / and the angels — / somewhere my stomach lost its way / amidst the tangles of a prayer and an / agony, an anger, and all I hate. / Here is a scar; there, the bruise. / This is the air we breathe.”
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“These bones are too hard. / I can’t break them. /I can’t feel my heart all the way behind them. / If I scratched off my skin, / I could hold these little blue veins in my wrists.”
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“I am a member of the family / I am a member of the housework crew / I am my parent’s possession/ I am their trophy
I am a representative for Christ / I am a future mother in a future family preparing to serve a future husband.”
Homeschoolers Anonymous 