The Sunny Flowers For The Heart Broken Public Poem by Guinevere Eveleigh

Photographs of innocent bright faces smile on the TV
Their lives were ended so shortly on December the 14th
I thought of parents who dreamt of their future together
Dying as they hear the dreadful news
That their child was killed in a bloody world that they knew nothing of
Till that dreadful day

I think of the children who survived
And of course those died
Their blissful innocence destroyed before their very eyes
As they hear the hiss and cackle of a gun
Oh God! I don't think I can write on!

But I must and will because I'm trying to write the words
The words that jumble around in my skull
Because a few nights before or after (my dreams get mixed into one another)
I dreamt of a church under a dark, intense shadow that frowned upon the world
Swallowing up all light as if it were some delicious dessert

But under the shadow were children's graves
Marked by small wooden crosses for where the little ones laid
But even though a horrendous sight it were to my dreaming eyes
By each grave grew a yellow flower
And since there was no sun in the dirty sky
I thought to myself that it must have been diced into seeds
And planted beside each child in their sleep

When I awoke I felt a strange
But I shrugged off the feeling for another day
But then I thought of it yet again
And I felt the need to write it down in pen
But I couldn't get the words right at all
So I thought "maybe I should just write down what I feel deep down in my gut"

Yes, the sky sometimes becomes drenched in grey
Yes, the sky sometimes swallows the sun
But the flowers by the graves still gave light
Despite being by such a melancholy sight
The flowers, I felt, were there to give hope
In a world ravished by the devil's work
Because even though the earth turns to the night
The stars, they are yellow, guide us towards the feelings of believing
That everything will be alright

So for each child and teacher who have died
I give a yellow flower
It doesn't matter what kind I shall let you decide
Just so long as it is yellow
Because I think the flowers were yellow for a purpose
And that was to be our only lantern in world that still grows closer to the dark but even closer to the dawn