Two Degrees

A homeschool mom I know online
Went today to deliver fresh herbs to a friend,
Only to find the house boarded up,
The brick painted safety green.

The phones were disconnected, too.

A neighbor came by and said that after Thanksgiving
The mother and daughter were beaten
To death,
The house set on fire.

I recognized that story.

But after a semester of mass murder,
And gang rape,
Our weary small city could hardly handle
Yet one more terrible story.

And so, as happens in terrible stories in small towns,
I find myself again just two degrees of separation
From horror.

There is no reasonable response.