Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

Do they seep into the consciousness

Of those whose rights define their lives?

Or do they float, 

Like bubbles caught in accidental winds,

That burst their iridescence 

Before distracted eyes observe?

What worth do lives of innocents,

Have in times where pomp,

And fireworks, 

Exalt an adult life?

Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

Are they worth less than rights of adults,

Who prance and preen

Dark metal clutched

In hands that deny the blood 

Of children

Spilt sad and soaked 

In schools across their nation?

Are they just the cost

Of another kind of worship?

Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

Are they just dust beneath the feet

Of money cloaked in death?

Conscienceless 

Purveyors

Whose goods 

Are not for life

But death

Bought by those

Whose faith fixates

On retribution

Not on love?

Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

For mothers and fathers,

Swaddled in sadness

Buried in the depths

Of grief and loss

For the little ones 

Who never came home

For the bedtime stories

No longer read

Whose slippers 

Sit silent

In their rooms?

Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

Are they forgotten?

Hidden beneath

The circus

Of words 

And hollow wishes

Of thoughts and prayers

Not actions?

No will to change

Or think

That life

And love 

Might grow

Connected community

Where is the sorrow for the innocents?

Where are the flags half-mast in mourning?

Is it only from afar

Outside the borders

Of freedom

Liberty and justice

That reason 

Sees and mourns

And watches

In sorrow?