polytechnique

Fourteen women
In their youth
Defying the odds
In ways that just seem everyday.
This is their life.
For now.

But this reality is interrupted
In a sudden horrific spurt of violence
Spreading fear and death
And these women are no more.

It may be sudden
But it was built upon
An eternity of hatred
Of those that wanted to remain
The ones in power
Disrupting opportunity
Stopping it dead in its tracks.

This direct attack
Reaches me deeply
It has horrified so many
But this place,
Where it happened,
Just seems so ordinary.

Only a marble plaque on the wall
Gives any hint that it happened here.
It only tells names,
Not a story.

Yet how is this different,
Than any other tragedy
Where those that suffer
Are forgotten
The land paved over
The memories lost
And no one stops to think
About this place they stand on
This land that has seen something
Terrible beyond words.