Christopher James Bishop loved teaching German
Ryan Clark, a month from graduation
Caitlin Hammaren, a talented violinist
Alicia White
Joaquin Oliver
Meadow Pollack
Peter Wang
Clayton Parks
And on and on and on
I could list thousands of names
Stories of lives torn apart
Bullets piercing bleeding bodies
Beating hearts hear gunshots and fall silent
And when I am done reading
Another name will be added to the list
Your calloused hands claw for bloody bills
Breathlessly, blindly,
Politicians accept bribery
Like puppeteers
The NRA pulls in politicians and keeps them on a string
Paralyzed, hypnotized, as you look in the eyes of injustice’s aid
Destruction and death
All for a letter grade
You cite open doors
A violent video game
Each death you think up something else to blame
You pitiless people profiting off pain
Pacify never rectify this pathetic paradigm
As if lives loved and lives lost amount to nothing
As if!
If you collected our tears we’d flood the world
Washing away the remnants of the lives that you stole
I could build an ark to keep me afloat
With bulletproof windows and a kevlar raincoat
And still there are more names
More lives owed justice
Henry Lee
Juan Ortiz
Nicole White
Carrie Parsons
Don’t you see what you’ve done?
You’re blind to the broken hearts
The heartache, the heartbreak
The Kindergarteners cowering under desks
Faces fraught with fear
Just a drill, just a drill, why is this a drill?
You are numb to the frantic I love you whispered into phones
Don’t you see: we are the ones who reap the inaction you have sown
So when your eyes are pried open and you see what you’ve done
I’ll send my thoughts and prayers
Grade: 8
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
Gillian Flynn
I would like to go to school in person and not via Zoom.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg