We Send Them Off
for Uvalde’s children
By car or bus we send them off
to kindergarten, first grade,
with a hug and a kiss
we let them go
with backpack and lunchbox
we send them off, our children
who carry on their little backs
the invisible terrible thing
not spoken of
by us who let them go
because we dare not
name this fear: that all our love
won’t keep them safe,
that love alone
is not enough
to bring them home.
….
This poem is from the chapbook This One Life by Lee Robinson (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/this-one-life-by-lee-robinson/
Lee Robinson practiced law for 25 years in Charleston, South Carolina, and was the first female president of the Charleston County Bar. She has published two novels and a young adult novel. Her first poetry collection, Hearsay, won the Poets Out Loud Prize from Fordham University Press. She is also the author of a novel for young adults, Gateway, and a second poetry collection, Creed. Her essays, poetry, and short stories have appeared in many magazines and journals. She and her husband, the physician and writer Jerald Winakur, were co-recipients of the 2009 Literary Excellence Award from Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s center for the literary arts. Lee is a three-time winner of the S.C. Arts Commission’s Fiction Prize for short stories. She lives on a ranch in the Texas hill country.
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