I know it was probably an isolated incident.
Still, we have tickets to see Future Islands
in Pittsburgh less than a week

after the bombing at Ariana Grande’s
concert in Manchester. You and me
and two close friends will be in close

proximity to throngs of strangers
for what has become a popular band.
I know it was probably an isolated

incident, but it does not take a tragedy
for a concert to become full of sudden
lights and screaming. I am not looking to fear

anything. But I am thinking of the children
who left their homes that night with the sunrise
in their eyes, expecting to cry only

at first familiar beat of their favorite song.
And I am thinking of the parents,
stopping at the arena with a car full

of excited kids, telling them to be safe
before watching their beloved become
silhouettes passing first into crowd

then crowded door. And I am thinking
of parents picking up their kids with
a frantic search through running bodies

and lights but only finding smoke
and sirens and sobbing, songs
we fear we’ll hear.

(originally published in Constellations, Winter 2021)