She sits sobbing on the curb, alone,

Despair seeping too deep into her bones.

Echoes of gunshots ring out in her head,

Bodies falling on the ground, streaks of red.

Her face battered, her eyes alight,

“I just wanted to hear the music tonight.”

We read the reports, tight and formal.

Here it is—America’s new normal.

Pick up a gun at a local WalMart

And use it to tear other lives apart.

How many times must we see

Violence magnified to its greatest degree?

Shots ring out in a night club,

Frantic feet, pools of blood.

Terror ripping through school hallways

Nine-year-old children, chaos raised.

Fifty-eight lives wiped from this earth;

This was not their destiny of birth.

What must happen before we see

This is more than a crime against humanity.

We need change and we need it now—

Legislation, background checks, a signed vow.

Because a mother shouldn’t be taken away

From her career, her children, her next birthday.

A grandfather shouldn’t have to see

His granddaughter laid in the ground tragically.

Take this horror, hold it in your heart,

And realize now is the time to do your part.