RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS
Mass Shootings
How dare we shrug at the blood of children
The death of innocents is always chilling
But to die in this manner…
A mad gunman (all mass shooters are mad)
Invades a sacred space –
Where the outside world is banished
Where an open mind is the only requirement –
And opens fire as if it were a war zone
As if wide-eyed kids were enemy soldiers
Where the explosion of gunfire does not end
Until blood covers the cold tiled floor
And nineteen children lie still
Motionless
Never to rise again…
To be a child and witness the slaughter
To have it imprinted on your mind
From Columbine to Sandy Hook
To a fourth-grade classroom in smalltown Texas
It will never end
Until America fundamentally changes
Until the gun industry gets out of politics
Until American voters stop pretending
That Americans cannot be free
Without a gun in every hand
Without access to mass-killing weapons
For every warped psycho killer
With a credit card
Mass shootings will not end
Until we vote out of office
Every self-serving politician
Who sold his and her soul
To protect the right to kill