I Didn'T Want To Write This Poem

I didn’t want to write this poem Of twenty children dead. I’d much prefer composing words Of pleasant things instead. I didn’t want to think up rhymes For evil, horror, shock; I’d like to hide those images Behind a mental block. I didn’t want to conjure up A classroom filled with death, Or parents of those kindergartners Struggling for breath. I didn’t want to write of those Who heard each awful shot. I didn’t want to write this poem But then, how could I not?