I wrote this poem just after the tragedy occurred. I knew people who were there and watched the whole crisis unfold that night – into the morning and throughout the whole day. It was emotionally moving and frightfully awful. The emotions still stir when they show the victim’s families and how they have not received money that was donated to them. I digress.
Aurora Cries
7/20/12
Tragedy makes the walls surround
pulling down the joyest frown
Hissing sounds fill my ears
as pops and bangs split my hairs
Chaos races by me now
how I survive, I know not how
Responders fly here and there
smoke and haze fill the air
The stench of death sinks in my clothes
as blood and filth of bodies froze
I want to cry but no sound comes
only the daze of a steady hum
Stumbling out I smell the night
but all around me lie death’s fright
What questions asked I do not know
but days ahead will the truth unfold
Coloradans mourn as Aurora cries
and pick up the pieces as time flies