A Poem for Victoria Soto

We all have different ways of coping with the horror of the school shootings in Newtown CT. People are donating, having vigils and praying, and bringing items to the town. My coping mechanism is poetry. I kept seeing Victoria Soto’s face on Facebook and felt like I wanted to focus on her. I wrote this poem and shared it on Facebook yesterday — on the day she was buried. In the midst of death, we must try to celebrate life.

Hero Unmasked (For Victoria Soto)

Her smiling photo posted –

reposted  –

she resonates –

a final note at

the end of a song;

a hushed world

listens in vain for more,

but silence hangs empty

as the stockings of the lost.

Children often aspire heroic –

Did she?

Ever don the cape and mask

and dream?

Not about this…

this dark December day,

when arms outstretched like wings,

she did the real thing:

shielded her angels

without cape and mask,

without bulletproof clothes,

without thinking –

she revealed

herself

to us

all.

Copyright 2012 Susan Desrocher

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