Don’t Mention Guns Today: Innocence Lost by the Crimson Line

don’t mention guns today

she steps over the crimson line
security guard swipes her
with metal detector.

tiny fingers retrieve
flowery pink pencil case
and her peers skip along

the narrow corridor
submerging into the classroom
where the history teacher

sits at the whiteboard.
resistant door clunked shut
and sealed them in.

An abstract image depicting a red line, a shadowy security figure with a metal detector, and silhouetted children.