Trenchcoat: a poem about Columbine
Bags of potpourri that the Littleton, Colorado, fire department made from flowers placed at Columbine High School: 3000
Trenchcoat
It was hard to drop her at school
that spring. She made me leave her
two blocks away
Low on her hip she
flicked dismissive fingers at me
in a way she hoped would be invisible
to other kids
It wasn’t just Columbine
Children were dying video gun deaths
all over the US
Other teens were being snapped in two in car accidents
breakable as bread sticks
or taken to lonely woods
and crumpled like test papers
At the swimming pool after
I watched a teen boy toss Meghann like pizza
his arms newly strong, voice
loud, sure, traveling out over the heads of toddlers
and kids in grade school
moms with infants at breast
She fought for footing on the bottom of the pool
came up sputtering
giggling
happy to be vanquished
I wanted to tell someone I loathed potpourri
Eaton Hamilton 