I’ve seen many young die

And it breaks my heart to this day to see photographs

Buried underneath my diploma and school planners

The washed out teddy bears still taped to street signs on corners

Mean nothing more than yellow light, slow down,

To cars racing home in the eve of summer

But I can see the pain it has left on mothers, who grasp at their chest daily

Wishing to pull the pain from their bones

And lay it in their gardens to grow shrines of past sons and daughters