Columbine High (of school-shooting infamy) is the namesake of Colorado’s
state flower.
Aquilegia Caerulea is the plant’s scientific name. It really
is a perennial, which means it comes back year after year, just like school
shootings. End of botany lesson.
-Tom
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Lyrics
Was I a flower of a child, a thoughtful gentle soul,
sent daily to the vipers on the playground, on patrol?
Just for their amusement they pushed me to the floor.
I lashed back but wound up in the place I was before.
“Clearly you provoked them,” the administrator hissed.
They snickered in the background and my outrage was dismissed.
Aquilegia Caerulea.
A perennial problem. A perennial nightmare.
You blame the games, the clothes, the music, but mark my words, I swear.
See the problem in the mirror or see bullets in the air.
Aquilegia Caerulea.
A perennial problem. A perennial nightmare.
I walk home five blocks around them and still my stomach turns,
for the weekend’s empty promise is realized when Monday burns.
They say, “Kill yourself you loser; the world would be improved.”
The others laugh and join the fun. The teachers seem unmoved.
My meager friends avert their eyes, for they stand next in line;
their fragile souls susceptible for classmates to malign.
I could point this thing and open fire.
I could turn it on myself.
You’ll clamor for a motive but you will never guess.
It’s so simple really; all I want is my redress.
My meekness is exhausted and nothing here has worth.
So why should I desire to inherit the Earth?
