Chronicles multiple years of mass shootings
The choices we made again and again
Ten bodies hit the floor
Eight more the week before
On the job, or out buying food
All it takes is to die, is a bad mood
At the movies, in your churches
It all started with a purchase
A gun
For fun
Or defend
A friend
Emotion
Leads to motion
Twitching finger
Is the bringer
Of death
And bereft
Black and brown
Hit the ground
Lives cast aside
In a hellward slide
Society on a path
Lead by wrath
Thoughts and prayers for the dead
But we must defend our lead
It’s our right to own the gun
That took away your son
Put him in a grave
Our amendment is the only save
We chose the weapon
We let this happen
Again and again, it’s not the right time
To put our values on the line
Maybe next time around
When our kids' schools locked down
We will come to our senses
Instead of sitting on fences
Blood liberated by lead
And now you too are dead
Too late now to make a choice
Use your voice
Put an end to this war
Streets filled with blood and gore
Put down your gun
Don’t be the only one
We chose this as a right
To be able to fight
To kill
At will
We can change our minds
Leave the slaughter behind
No more fear when we meet
Or bodies in the street
Cause a man with a plan
Had a gun in his hand
Fired away
Taking your child away
Just a twitch of a finger
Becoming the bringer
Of death and despair
Blood caking the hair
Another soul gone
From the barrel of a gun
This was our choice
Though tears are still moist
We can put our guns down
So next time won’t come around
For thoughts and prayers for the dead
While we defend our lead
Forty-five days filled with death
Since paper met lead giving words breath
Over two-hundred-fifty bodies were torn asunder
Assault rifles killing in seconds of rapid-fire thunder
Everywhere you once felt safe
Could become the next bloodbath place
And if the mass killings aren’t enough reason
Ten times more die I don’t know why every season
Accidents, suicide, bad break up, kids acting tough, innocent bystander
Even crimes of passion based on falsehoods and slander
Times of fear anger jealousy or just bad temper
Just takes a spark to become an ember
Add the presence of a gun
And you better run
When the bullets fly
It’s run hide or die
These are the choices we made
How many in graves have we laid
While we are defending the gun
That sent our children on the run
A run for their lives or early grave
When all they want to do is finish fifth grade
When you are talking on your phone
Scared feeling all alone
Or sleeping In your bed
Your life’s taken by flying lead
Draining from you as you bled
Point blank range into your head
Quick to Shoot you in the back
When all they see is You are black
Who may or may not have a gun
Or even just trying to run
Our sworn Protectors live in fear
Their deaths are always near
Too many guns in too many hands
Protected by the laws of the land
We all share the same fear
Our own deaths may soon be here
Only our solutions may vary
Should we disarm or carry
Some choose to reduce the risk
So every taillight out doesn’t end in frisk
Some react to fear with the need to kill
Send bullet down barrel at will
Clearly what we have done
Since our nation's first rising sun
Is not working out great
Maybe it’s not too late
To try another way
And see our very first day
Without hundreds of dead
Lives taken by flying lead
Might makes right, is the way to peace
If that’s so right why the unease
Today in Israel the land they call holy
Missiles keep flying sirens blaring slowly
Holes in buildings holes in the ground
Where is the peace you say is to be found
Might doesn’t make right
Might makes never-ending fight
Bullets flying everywhere
Bombs bursting in the air
Is this why our flag is still there after two hundred years
Till our flag was used as a weapon against ourselves fed lies and fears
The choices we made we’re not solely our own
The channel we watch and the people we know as we grow
Influence you every hour of every day
Till missiles and mass murders and insurrection are okay
In the past year, half a million died here
Three million more everywhere
We even fought over whether to protect each other
Or heighten the danger, mocking one another
Please please please choose wisely from this second forth
Go back to your innocence free of influence, the moment of birth
See the world as wonder once again, life as a gift
The moment you know nothing, just a smile brings you bliss
Unlearn everything that’s programmed into you except this moment in time
Start your life over full of love, full of wonder, on the right path, the kindness line
Death is forever, death is the end, no more chances, no more choices
Hundreds of thousands can be saved if you just use your voices
Don’t listen to others telling you how to feel
Feel what you feel with each life a bullet may steal
Ten seconds may pass in the blink of an eye
More than enough time for the bullets to fly
Two more dead twenty lives changed
Targets don’t matter when fully enraged
What next we wonder
What horror to ponder
Children with assault rifles shooting at police
Imitating video games used for stress relief
A good guy with a gun
Forced into letting the blood run
From a thirteen-year-old child
Who thought it would be wild
To play with a real gun
Have a little fun
She grew up In strife
Now she’s clinging to life
While in the halls
Of the Texas laws
A sub-brilliant idea was formed
As people plead for reform
A governor with no heart
Had this wisdom to impart
Let everyone run around with arms
What could be the harm
Driving to the store
Ends in blood and gore
You went through a light that was red
And now you lie there dead
Any event that may anger another
Maybe the moment you join grandmother
On the other side of the grave
Or a life someone did save
Spending the rest of your days in a chair
Wishing lawmakers would begin to care
Every time I put pen to page
Chronicles of pain and of rage
For every death, I have mentioned
A hundred more go without attention
The forecast, a hot bloody summer
Every death, is just a number
A toll we pay to the reaper
Just to be the keeper
Of the power to cause death
Glorified with every breath
Social media profile photo
Holding guns and the tired motto
The same old quotes from the NRA
Is all we have to say
When dared to question our decision
To value gunmetal over a vision
Of a world without the need
To teach active-shooter, before how-to-read
Someday
Someway
A poem with no end in sight
Completed by doing what is right
Will be short enough to be read
By the time we are dead
If started after learning the alphabet
Is it a long shot or a safe bet
The author spends his last days
Honoring the lives blown away
Maybe he too will meet his end
A bullet his life mid-sentence rend
‘Twas not this moment for my words to flow away
Been holding out hope of touching someone today
Awaken a feeling of disgust and remorse
Inspiring a change in the current discourse
I send my words out to the world at large
Hoping to stop even one bullet discharge
I woke up to my dismay
The news of the day
The more that die
The more guns people buy
Four million this month alone
Everyone scared not to have one
The more guns they buy
The more in the hands of, the other guy
A never-ending cycle of ever-increasing fear
Open carry laws remind us death is always near
It is Gun Violence Awareness Day
All the newscasters had to say
People are buying guns at a record pace
While mass shootings all over the place
This is our answer this is our solution
To the season of bloody execution
Madness, madness it’s not only badness
Accidental discharge brings grief and sadness
Do you have the right mind and will
To pull the trigger and kill
If it’s the person that kills not the gun
Are you willing to be another one
Whether it’s fear or anger
The perception of danger
That sent you to make your purchase
You made a choice to accept a purpose
To kill
At will
No matter the reason
To join the killing season
In the year the would-be king was disposed
A former would-be princess had this to propose
The south shall rise again and kill them all
All those who look like they belong behind a wall
Just days before the disgraced adviser of security
Exclamation punctuation corruption story
Rise up in bloody overthrow
Violent tendency we must outgrow
They say they must be armed against tyranny
Those with the most arms become the tyrants
The people we elect
Now under death threat
Oh what disgrace
Cultural arms race
Many dark moons passed in silence
Stunned without words for such violence
Massive guns stacked up threateningly at the border
So much peace force, we need that here in short order
They are our brothers, from other mothers
So unprepared for the coming slaughter
The tangerine king
Didn't say a thing
When genocide
Became the pride
The lion attacked the mouse
The mouse would not give up its house
Nuclear wasteland another battleground
Global disaster incoming with every round
Back at home we have qanon
Planning our execution
Nazis dine
In the den of lies
Whispered plans magnified
Nondenouncement amplified
Just because he was her
Five more dead and your goto phrase
Proven no more than smoke and haze
The good guy set aside the gun
The target fought instead of run
The bad guy did not die that day
The propagandist had much to say
Rising danger rising heat
Four more lost on a distant street
Talking heads taking aim
Claiming all who attend are fair game
If you dare be who you are
You are targeted near and far
The hero who saved the life
Was there with his kids and wife
A good time to be had
Laughter ended by the very bad
Comedy
Twisted tragically
Punchline pause bullets flying
Friends and family laying dying
The choices made no longer made by us
Meme mentality tools of propagandists
The more people call for common sense
The more they wrap themselves in senselessness
When they have you living in the slaughterhouse
They want you to scared like a shaking mouse
For every point we try to make
Pleading for our lives at stake
Screams into chasms dark embrace
Echo-chamber fear and blaming race
We don't need to be controlled by memes
There's no need for violence themes
Fear and hate
Purposeful separate
They can't let us see eye to eye
Or we'd agree we rather not die
They change the way you see everything
So you accept anything and everything
Ding
Another meme
Cartoonish
Buffoonish
Blood keeps pouring down the drains
Check your pockets not your brains
We are dying here
While you are relying on fear
For every one person shot
Two new guns are soon bought
Exponential
Expansionism
Will your fear increase or subside
Once every man woman and child is armed on every side
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