Gun Violence
Learn more about other poetry terms
Nowadays,
holding the door
for a stranger
could be the difference
between a normal day
and a mass shooting.
Sad, isn't it?
Checklist for a teacher; remember that there are no guarantees. No city is safe in this place that touts the gun-waving will save you.
No, I don't want to be a teacher equipped with a gun
A gun doesn't stop another gun
Institutions are a model train set
of the politicians and their supporters.
The only thing that seems right to me
is to follow the golden rule.
In a society of mass shootings and
Snap was all that was heard,A hunter misses his bird, He cursed the twig asunder,Reaching for his powder and plunger, lost though his chance at a partridge,He continued, Bit off his cartridge,
My white
so thin skinned
yet precision skilled to
fillet and kill any soul that’s melanated
Unabated savagery
Bullets have no name
All you have to do is be in frame
Be in the vicinity and you may get hit
But some legislators don't give a damn
What will it take to put measures in order
I am anchored here: four walls and a kitchen
from which a holy spring flows, imbued
with chlorine, fluoride, and trihalomethanes,
words which sound like spells without
the rhythmic bounce found in nature.
When will it stop?
This merciless killing of innocent victims and children
It's chilling
This ain't a world that I wanna raise kids in
We lived with the land.
One day strangers came,
wearing garments in which they could not hunt or gather food.
How do they sustain themselves?
I went to a new school
When I was six years old
One day our teacher got a call
Hide. Is what we were told
Kids went under desks and into closets
Hide anywhere you can!
A day that most people would know to be a romantic holiday where you spend it with your loved ones
Waking up, thinking about back in the day.
The kids got up, went outside to play.
Things was groovy, hey.
Until everything started to change.
The world suddenly got rearraged.
The people really went deranged.
oh sweet child;
you don't deserve this
to see the cold, hard metal pointed at you
to see your friends taken away in a black bag
to not have time enough for your hot tears to dry on your cheeks
Bad Guy With a Gun
We have been studying Hamlet, but now I am sitting in a classroom with twenty five seniors
in the dark.
My bullets don't crave blood
My trigger doesn't trigger on its own
I don't pick my target
Not the criminal to be blamed
For the murderous deck of cards to be played
The eerie soul that finds me
You fight for your right to guns with all your might
Not just any guns
But military grade guns that take the lives of
Innocent children and teens and teachers alike
When I got on my knees for church
And asked who am I doing this for?
When I watched a man die on the street
And wondered why anyone need be poor?
When I heard students cry out for peers shot dead
the clock is ticking
and i am very afraid
afraid to live
in a world where i probably won't see my old age
the clock is ticking
and i am very afraid
afraid to live
in a world where i probably won't see my old age
Is voting the only time you’re able to truly validate your voice?
I’ve heard about the police brutality, the shootings, food insecurity
But turning 18 is not the only time you get to make a choice
I’m sick,
of all the gun violence and hate
The Hate U Give movie showed me that
I’m sick and tired
You know when you wake up in the middle of the night and you choose to not wear your glasses?
I awake with a scream,
my ears still ringing
from the gunshots and yelling,
the hymns we were singing.
We march in the streets
and we all yell some more.
But it falls on deaf ears
Pay attention.
I’ve got something to say
Figured that this way, you’d listen
People are dying. Mad Men with guns.
tolerate the hate
& label (wronG) "o.k."
make the cUrved lines straight
therfore power remaiNs great
...to late... no souls to saVe
tomb stones have been engraved
I have been well acquainted with you, Death
I have walked fearlessly --- and trembling back
I have survived and heard their dying breath
133.133 mass shootings. 133 situations where policeCalled loved ones,Family,Friends,To come in and to identifyThe bodies of victims who Never askedNever wantedNever seeked
The bang of a bullet firing
The fear that follows
The sight of my friends swimming in their own red pools
And their mothers trying to save them from drowning
NIMBY is limbo,
an escalator slinky
manifests attention deficit
of adults in America
addled and hysterical
I notice attempts to fulfill those needs
Of protecting kids with safety measures.
Back then, the only concerns were nosebleeds.
Why must I still see these tear-stained pictures,
One shot
Two shot
Three shot
four
Mama doesnt wanna send her kids to school anymore
One down
Two down
Three down galore
Tell me why our voices are so easy to ignore
My life
His life
stop taping young
people’s mouths shut
and telling us where
our places are
stop screaming over the
voices of tomorrow
and stop telling us we don’t
know what we’re talking about
for lives lost
at the end of a gun
and those wounded
at the hands of
a bullet
i pray for
your peace but
more importantly
i pray for
your justice
10 Years from now, we’ll still be here;
Arguing if measures will help the defenseless.
The ever present fear will always be near.
There’s no reason to allow the Left to put me in fear,
We’ve stated concerns about the fears of violence in our halls,
then waited silently as we burn.
For some reason dress codes are stricter than our gun laws,
Safety.
Does it even exist?
High schools, middle schools, elementary's at risk.
the gun in her bag went off but it was only a prequel
three more kids 12-year-old girl shot four people.
Guns,
Bombs,
Air raids.
I watch in awe as the laughtr fades.
One dead body,
Three more on their way.
I wonder what their parents will say.
You start to wonder,
I saw you last week
Smiling and laughing
We weren't the best of friends but we were friends
The bodies weren’t even cold
When people safe distances away
Made jokes about the dead.
Their bodies are barely in the ground
Brazen youth facing the sun, we viewed the skies
Azure blue temple spreads for miles from my eyes,
forests and beaches and foreign lands, we build new fleet
A city that never dies vibrating beneath our feet
Another teardrop.
Another demand for change.
Denouncing gun laws
While mourning for dead children.
Shock and sorrow have left me.
A school shooting so damn close to home
I know everyone says it but
You never expect it to happen so close to you.
Always seems so far away when it's on the news
Until it happens to you
What has become of the world
a vortex of death and destruction.
Is it too much to ask
for people to respect others
to respect their decisions
to respect their religion
to respect their views
Full to the ceiling
Parents and children alike
Some get sick
Some get stuck
Harvesting tobacco
They were bought with guns
Full to the ceiling
Parents and children alike
Some are rich
When was the last time a young girl wasn’t dress-coded or sexualized just because it was 85 degrees outside?
When was the last time an immigrant earned enough money from one job to support their family?
Being born on US soil means your life has more value
Hate special snowflakes, unless it’s Matthew
One life is worth more than 80,000 so long as it’s Christian
America, we are under attackas guns burst in our classroomsthe federal government signs the Patriot Actbecause we are wil
every single human on this earth has a purpose. every person has a complex and complete thought process and emotional reservoir that is utilized on a daily basis. every person has a mother, father, some have sisters and brothers.
Each Night,
I rub, I scrape
and I fight.
Each night I try
to wash the pigment
I cry
as my skin begins to redden
I can't take it off.
All of a sudden
I stop.
Again, I am here
Again, I am at a loss
Again, I haves questions
Again, there's no answers
Again, a stastic
Again, lives equals numbers
Again, the desensitation
Again, the lack of underestanding
Don't turn your head
keep looking at the horror
of fallen victims
littering our streets
with continued
allegiance to the NRA
as millions hope and pray
their lives won't be the next in line
Rainbows or Solids
Experience or Knowledge
Christian or Atheist
No matter what, here he is.
This is a child.
This is someone's worthwhile.
He is loved by someone,
Turn it off
Turn off the news
Turn off
The hurt
The hurt
The hurt
It's too much to take
Too much to understand
So it's better to just not see
It's better to just
Turn it off
My Father held a gun, and I did not feel safer
It hurts to picture, its not fair that this
Engrained in my brain
Engrained in my brain.
I was in the bathroom
Running late
How do you tell a 5 year old someone's gone?
How do you tell a 5 year old their best friend left?
How do you tell a 5 year old a role model has disappeared?
How do you tell a 5 year old a loved one is dead?
When you catch the black-eyed man’s black eyes on the station platform
and don’t think anything of it, because his eyes are only two in many
millions, maybe, or a thousand you’ve seen that day, only
a little bit darker
I feel it in your voice
I sense it in your stare
I taste it in your tears,
a battle fought for countless years
In Baltimore,
We have lost 92 of our men
What’s stopping me
From being number 93
This poem is for number 43
Michael Mayfield
ROTC student,
And gifted baseball player,
His arm,
Why
Why must I be here
I see that the end is near
What
What do I feel
Nothing, I don't think I will heal
Who
Who wanted my heart to stop working
Inspired by Billy Collins
It would be a lie to say
I don’t have a habit of writing
About every tragedy
That is headlined on the evening news,
A lie to say
As I stare him in the eye
The nerve in my brain send a sensation to my right hand
My finger twitched
and....
Bang!
A innocent life hit the ground
like a ton of bricks
I'm speaking in simple rhyme so you can hear my messageToo many songs sung and rapped about the sex messageDrugs and love don't mix, don't you know that?
Mother died today, although we didn't know it.Missing,she went missing, and it wasn't until the next daythat her body was found.
Bang! Bang! Like the shot heard around the world
Another life lost on the curb.
Once more, an innocent life unfurled.
I see a young man
sauntering down the block at a comfortable pace
smile across his face... who doesn’t love a lazy Sunday?
POP!--POP!--POP!
….......
every
one
drops
