A TRIBUTE AND A CALL TO ACTION FOR OUR PRECIOUS YOUTH IN THE UNITED STATES
Where did all our wondrous flowers go;
In the seasons past so many gone from our midst:
When actions from us their faces did take…
And shook our communities head to foot.
Abused, abandoned, and all full of questions;
Bullied and beaten about by people and their environment;
Caught in the crossfire and chased from their homes;
Death and destruction follow them daily.
Evicted from home with families in the cold and existing in poverty or not, they grow old;
Fraught with troubles and problems overt and bold,
Groping in the dark on Gang turf and vacant grass.
Hiding in their own homes when mobs they do pass;
Injured by stray bullets and flying shards of glass,
Junk in their bodies by pushers stuck in,
Kill and kill more and more potent the cartels move in to kill again.
Loss of love and no one to support them when they must speak of the loss of a loved one;
Murder and massacre muddle their minds,
Never a quiet night in their neighborhoods when nuisance gangs bring their drugs out to sell.
Out, out foulness so disgraceful, that causes our children to be out and out scared;
Pride of those greedy and arrogant and foolin’, has taken the childhood out of those children;
Quickly they must rush home and back, to the bus and to the store;
Running in fear when the shouting and shooting begin and hoping they will not be struck;
Summer is a season of fear for them; they cannot go out on their own lawns alone.
Turf wars the reason, they hide in their bedrooms, and try not to think about the troubles outside.
Until a car drives by and someone begins shooting and shouting and flashing those signs.
When the victim is one of your family, and then you hear the news in the ER:
“X-rays reveal no exit wound,
Your child was critical when brought in and now, there is
Zero chance of survival.”
…Wandering about in the deep silence of night, those sorrowing parents will talk about that which they could have done… might have done…
“… should have bought them those drums, perhaps….”
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To the memory of all victims of gun violence in this nation in the past decade, especially for the people of Chicago, Newtown, Aurora, and the United States, and for their families and their communities.
Divi Logan, Nashville and Chicago, 2013.
POETIC GOOD NATURE 