A Lament: It Should Have Been Safe

Photo by Jeff Nelson

How did this happen
in a place meant for light,
for salt air and bare feet,
for laughter carried by waves?

I cannot take this in.
My chest tightens.
My mind searches for grounding
and finds none.

Lives were taken
where people came to breathe.
Blood where there should have been water.
Screams where there should have been gulls and wind.

I am angry.
Not with clarity,
but with a raw, shaking anger
that has nowhere to land.

I am grieving for people I did not know,
yet somehow knew:
because they were there,
alive this morning,
expecting the day to be ordinary.

Why were they not protected?
Why does violence keep finding us
in places that should be safe?

I carry this weight
though I was not there,
It feels unbearable.

Do not ask me
to find meaning.
Do not rush me toward hope.
Today I stand among the broken
and name what is broken.

Let the dead be remembered
as more than numbers.
Let the living be allowed to weep
without apology.

If justice exists,
let it not be slow.
If mercy exists,
let it reach those who cannot sleep tonight.

I am here.
I am shaken.
I refuse to look away.

This is my lament.
I will not be silent.