Little bodies receive the genius of modern weapon technology,
Bushmaster XM15 E2S Semi-automatic Rifle
(rapid fire, one bullet at a time),
long gun fired at children in two first grade classrooms,
Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut,
December 14, 2012,
“a weapon designed to kill across a battlefield,”
to penetrate a helmet at 500 yards

Ballistics “intriguing,” writes journalist C. J. Chivers, in The Gun.
Lightweight, magazine fed, large load of propellant, 20-inch barrel work together,
move tiny bullets ultrafast,
thirty-two-hundred feet per second, almost three times speed of sound.
Bullets’ “energy stays in the body,” says medical examiner,
explodes throughout tissues,
two to eleven bullet wounds in each child and adult.
In funeral home, mother advised not to lift sheet covering her little boy

Bushmasters are the weapons for Afghanistan, for killing the Taliban.
Who was this Bushmaster aimed at in a public school?
Six-year-old first grade boy who liked asking about how the world worked,
six-year- old who taught her two younger sisters how to dance, read, laugh,
boy who had what he wanted for Christmas—two front teeth,
little girl who loved petting a Golden Retriever at her bus stop,
boy asking his parents, “How old do I have to be to order a foot long Subway?”

Twenty children, six and seven years old,
eight boys--twelve girls

Staff, six: principal, school psychologist, teacher, substitute teacher
paraprofessional, teacher’s aide, her arms around autistic child--dead

Danbury Hospital summons emergency personnel,
only three wounded brought in, two pronounced dead.
Call to New York City medical examiner for portable morgue