A fourteen year old boy lies bleeding in the street
Gunned down by a classmate
At the conclusion of a quarrel,
Hormonally induced
About a girl
At the funeral, his mother's screams rend thickened air
And strangers weep
Overcome by vicarious grief
In the back, another mother cries silently
For a son now known by number, not by name
And wonders whether her pain would have been greater
or less
If the gun had faced the other way
-Alexis Spencer-Byers
Gunned down by a classmate
At the conclusion of a quarrel,
Hormonally induced
About a girl
At the funeral, his mother's screams rend thickened air
And strangers weep
Overcome by vicarious grief
In the back, another mother cries silently
For a son now known by number, not by name
And wonders whether her pain would have been greater
or less
If the gun had faced the other way
-Alexis Spencer-Byers