This is a very moving poem on the Virginia Tech massacre.
The author is truly a gifted writer of poetry and prose. I especially enjoyed how she weaved liturgy and the promise of the Resurrection against the background of such a tragedy.
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I dislike the association of black leather with the killer and his stealth in murder.
You would have preferred she use brown leather? suede? camouflage military attire? 😛
What a great poem. Very moving…..
Steve
I would have preferred that it not be suggested that some motive could be read in his appearance. The idea that anyone can discern a “bad guy” based on what he’s wearing or what he looks like is deeply prejudicial. In fact, in the real world it’s far more likely that the really bad guys will blend easily into the crowds and never be noticed. From everything I’ve heard on this story, it seems that rather than being a notably dark figure, the perpetrator here actually offered several reasons far more valid than attire to have received notice and help, but he was sent home and nothing was done.
It seems silly to gripe about such things. I am not minimizing the tragedy nor the validity of the author expressing her emotions through poetry. However, I firmly believe that if anything is to be learned from the event in the hope of preventing something like it in the future, we must not revise, dramatize, or romanticize what happened. This point is in addition to my objection to black leather being associated with a murderer, when in fact its more common association is with an honorable subset of the gay community.