“Kindergarten Murders: Vigil Prayer” by Mael Brigde

                      “Kindergarten Murders: Vigil Prayer”

dear Brigit

your own son turned

in murderous treachery

against your people

and was killed

ragged spear

through your heart

at first you shrieked

in the end you wept

you know our grief

small children shot

mother’s son who slew them

and in his torment

died

aid us  Brigit

in our anger  sorrow  shock

peace to those who lived

to those destroyed

build us whole

sing our rebirth

that we may live open

eyes and hearts

heal in newfound understanding

this tender tragic earth

This poem was written in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which occurred on 14 December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, USA. It refers to the death of Brigit’s son in the Cath Maige Tuired, where he has attempted to murder one of his mother’s people in order to aid his father’s in the war between the Tuatha De Danann and the Fomorians.

Blessings on all our children.

Mael Brigde

Image: "Children in Khorixas, Namibia" by Thomas Schoch [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons