Fallen Peaches
A psychiatrist weighs in on the breaking news in Georgia, where there is yet another school shooting.
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POETRY FOR INCLUSION
In memory of the lives lost in Apalachee High School shooting.
There is red chill in the air
causing autumn to mourn.
A season of anticipating amazing
abundance pauses to pray
for the fallen peaches
that will never change colors
that will never taste sweet pomp and circumstance
that will never dance in green pastures
that will never ripen to their potential.
What are we to do when evil infects
the frazzled, fearful, frantic harvest
now bereft of hope and
bemoaned by loss ?
We offer prayers but no action.
We offer thoughts with no intent.
Thus!
Another season of impermanence
in a world seeking sweet subsistent
justice.
Frank A. Clark, MD
Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric TimesTM.
