I have seen too many children die.
Their faces materialize on the TV screen and everyone laments the tragedy,
The lost life, like it was bound to vanish, and I feel something rising in my chest.
I know too many people who hide their tears.
They silence themselves and try to take deep breaths
Only to find scorn and fear hanging in the air.

We pollute this world with rage and it seeps through the skin of the innocent.
I have seen my friends dwindle away to nearly nothing,
Pull their sleeves down over red wrists,
I have answered calls I never wanted to hear.
We were too young to handle this.
The weight of the world bears down on the shoulders
Of teens who barely know who they are.

If I could give you anything,
I would give you a voice.
Stop anyone who told you to shut up right in their tracks.
There is no time for silence!
There will
Never
Be a time, never be a place for pushing your hurt down,
For the people who would walk all over you.
Though the footprints may remain,
Wipe the dirt from your chest and I will try to pull you to your feet.
If you’re waiting for a miracle, it’s never going to show,
But if you need an ear to listen,
You know where to go.

I have seen too many children die,
Of no disease and of no accident.
Hatred is a murderer
And I am sick of this silence.