Two Haiku Lead Ins...

 

Trauma at 55

© April 3, 2023, the Griot Poet

 

Graduation day.

No child smiling because we

Lost Martin Thursday.

 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on Thursday, April 4, 1968. Our graduation was scheduled for [that] Friday at Bethlehem Community Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

 

After our teachers told us what happened, I remember crying until eleven, then getting dressed for graduation. Out of 36 children, none of us smiled. I recall thinking, “We’re not kids anymore!”

 

April 4, 2023, was the day my employer decided to have “active shooter training” 55 years later.

 

Devolution (Post-Cold War and 9/11)

© April 4, 2023, the Griot Poet

 

I did duck-and-hide

Drills, kids as cold warriors:

Now, active shooter.

 

My granddaughter celebrated her fourth birthday yesterday. She’s going to pre-K in the fall and will probably be introduced to her mortality sooner than I would like her to be. And now you know why I write poetry so fervently.

 

Short stories with these haikus are in a blog post titled “Innocence” at www dot Physics and Nano (one word) dot com.