`Added Significance'

After the slaughter in Virginia comes the inevitable orgy of self-righteous blaming, the indecent feeding on the newly dead. From The Niagara River, read Kay Ryan's “Added Significance”:

“In the wake of
horrible events
each act or word
is fortified with
added significance,
unabsorbable as
nutrients added
to the outside
of food: it can’t
do any good.
As if significance
weren’t burdensome
enough. Now
the wave-slapped
beach rocks not
just made to talk
but made to teach.”