The Purity of Fire

 

Yahoo tells me of a baby sold on Facebook,

And four Southern children dead in a fire

Not to be out-headlined by a missing student in Boston

And two boys shot dead in an Illinois town.

Too much death and ache and angst.

But all I can think about

Is the toughest girl I know

And how she rises from her daily deaths,

Rolls away the stone and walks tall.

Today, the spelling bee

And her fourth place finish,

Brought down by “purification”

and kept off the podium another year.

But her disappointment is less piercing

Than her resolve to carry on, and do the next thing

With heart and light and risk.

These million little deaths of growing up

And growing toward….

And not one Yahoo headline to be found.