Powerful grief can overwhelm us.
It doesn't merely make us feel blue.
At times it's more insidious,
For it is able to **** us, too.

Joe and Irma García had been
Married for twenty-four years until
A killer with an assault weapon had
A deadly mission to fulfill.

Nineteen elementary students
And two teachers were gunned down
Senselessly, brutally,
In what was a quiet Texan town.

Irma was one of the teachers killed.
Two days after his wife had been slain,
Joe dropped dead from a heart attack
Brought about by unbearable pain.

Their four kids are orphans now.
May we hold in our hearts today
The memory of Joe and Irma,
Who never should have died this way.

-by Bob B (5-29-22)