On the way to the hospital I could feel no pain, but I knew what he had done to me earlier that day. I had just flown in from Kansas City, and it was my first day in Vegas. My dad had already gone to work, and grandma was out back mowing the lawn, unable to hear the sounds around her.

Regretful murder suicides

Or better yet, just suicides.

Acting as if you knew all about it,

You’re helping a lot,

Really, you’re not.

A class clown attempted murder today.

A mother’s little boy,

a child’s best friend,

a teacher’s beloved terror,

stood over the monster who raised his freckly faced son

like the animal he’d become,

clutching a knife.

Built into the foundation

Of this very earth

Is a virtue,

More mysterious,

More powerful

Than life itself.