don’t shoot, america

don’t shoot, america

– 4/5/18 –

dead bodies

can’t hear your

thoughts and prayers.

can’t graduate,

can’t get married,

can’t grow old. my school

is not

a battlefield,

my desk

is not

a barricade,

my classmate

is not

a human shield. when

school shootings

become weekly traditions,

bullets destroy

life,

liberty,

and happiness.

yet change

       s t r o l l s    

            l e i s u r e l y,

as again and again

another school

loses its spirit

to an ar-15.

survivors

petition

for their lives,

and in return

they are gifted

with empty promises,

and parents

are left

with empty bedrooms,

while bodies

are lowered

into empty graves.

dead bodies

can’t use their voice,

                          but we can.