Kay Peters

SOMETHING HAPPENED

Today a boy was sent home,
the fifth day of sixth grade
"a danger to himself" not
what would be worse
"a danger to others".
What happened? Hope
for ordinary days in school,
friends, the basketball team
drowned in neurochemical riptides;
serotonin, dopamine, norepinepherine -
a child adrift in volatile seas.

Kay Peters is a registered nurse, a former oncology clinical nurse specialist who now serves as a parish nurse. Her poems have appeared in Philadelphia Poets, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets Review and Prompted. She received the 2008 Petracca Family Award from Philadelphia Poets.