The ongoing sight of arms is astounding.

However, it’s not the arms you may

Think. The arms that pacify your child

Have quickly turned to double-barreled,

Loaded, murderous ammunition, robbing the innocence

Of a nation. Tell me, dear, how

Many more of these children will these weapons annihilate

Before we see any type of reform?

OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES AND PRAYERS

Children are dying but you don’t see

The politicians crying. When will it end?

It never does, things only get worse. 

Because of these malicious weapons, that mother

Will never see her child again. That father

Will no longer hold his little princess,

Feigning to protect her from the imaginary

̈ ̈Bad guys,¨”though they were his neighbors

All along. That child will never get

Grow up and become the person that

The world is in dire need of. 

OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES AND PRAYERS

Sandy Hook claimed twenty-seven lives in

A matter of minutes. Columbine lost thirteen. 

Stoneman Douglas ́ seventeen victims; a massacre executed

By a fellow classmate. Why, then, do 

We continue to shield our eyes, wearing

Our rose-colored glasses? By all means,

The world is not a pretty place

To live in, but why are we

So afraid to face OUR ugly reality?

OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES AND PRAYERS

We need to unplug our desensitized 

Ears and open up our blurred eyes;

Turn on the voices filled with panic,

See the broken mother, the children fleeing.

Wake up and see the pile of

Backpacks left behind. The white man in 

The pressed suit attempting to placate a

Fractured country, saying there was nothing that

Could’ve been done for such heinous acts.

OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES AND PRAYERS

The cynicism is spreading, like a virus.

Another shooting, the children hiding under their

Desks as their teacher is gunned down

Risking his own life to save theirs. 

But oh, we should be grateful. Grateful

That this time, it was only seventeen. 

Their trauma, inevitable, oh yes, 17 lives 

Were taken but thousands of hearts were 

Left shattered. Families broken. Laws left untouched.

How many more?