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#NewsPoet: Talking to your kids after a school shooting

caption: Anastacia-Reneé is Seattle's second Civic Poet
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Anastacia-Reneé is Seattle's second Civic Poet
Courtesy of Jacob Wesley Sutton

In the wake of school shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida this year, parents are asking: "How do I talk to my child about mass shootings?"

KUOW helped answer that question with a story we did in March.

That inspired our next #NewsPoet, a series where local poets write an original piece based on a KUOW news story.

Today we hear from Seattle Civic Poet Anastacia-Reneé, with her poem: “Wrecked.”

Wrecked

there are pieces of you (child) lodged

behind another piece of you (child)

wedged between another

dangling part of the you that

was//call it an accident that you

were born to survive the wreckage

always walking or crawling or

slithering away once your frame

has been bent to turnstile

Related stories about guns and gun violence in Washington state:

Read more: Fatal gun violence looks different for Seattle kids,depending on where they live

Read more:Despite Heightened Fear Of School Shootings, It's Not A Growing Epidemic

Read more: ‘Why are you entitled to be safe?’ the gun owner asked this teen

Read more: In Unusual Move, Washington Attorney General Endorses Gun-Related Ballot Measure

Read more: This Yakima Valley school district has had guns on campus since 2014

We are researching youth gun deaths in King County. What do you want to know? Is there a story we should know, or someone you’d like to commemorate? Write to sydney@kuow.org and iraftery@kuow.org.

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