I wrote this concrete poem in the shape of an AR-15 after Parkland and never shared it. I saw the "flame" as a fire of activism catching, spreading for change. Now, with so many more mass shootings logged—now, after Uvalde—the poem reads differently to me.
Babies.
We are their parents.
We are their teachers.
They are the people we write for.
But all the words that can be written have been written. We must channel our shock, our anger, our disbelief, our frustration, our heartbreak, our anxiety—into action.
May our nation mobilize now so I never need to share this poem again.
—Lindsay H. Metcalf
Links for Immediate Action
Demand Action Against Gun Violence (5calls.org)
Demand a Federal Ban on Assault Weapons (5calls.org)
Support Federal Red Flag Legislation to Prevent Gun Violence (5calls.org)
Wear Orange Weekend: June 3-5
How to help Uvalde families (NPR)
Here are the gun bills stalled in Congress (The Hill)
School Shooting Resources (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)
Get Educated
For adults:
THE SECOND AMENDMENT: A Biography by Michael Waldman
GUNFIGHT: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America by Adam Winkler
CARRY: A MEMOIR OF SURVIVAL ON STOLEN LAND by Toni Jensen
TRIGGER POINTS: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America by Mark Follman
For Teens:
WHOSE RIGHT IS IT? The Second Amendment and the Fight Over Guns by Hana Bajramovic (nonfiction)
THREE THINGS I KNOW ARE TRUE by Betty Culley (fiction)
For Middle Schoolers:
AFTERMATH by Emily Barth Isler (fiction)
THIS IS NOT A DRILL by K.A. Holt (fiction)
For Elementary and Younger:
THE SECOND AMENDMENT: The Right to Bear Arms by Kirsten W. Larson (nonfiction)
THE BREAKING NEWS by Sarah Lynne Reul (fiction)