Ninety minutes saw nineteen little souls
Vanish before a hail of
Brass metal jackets
Tearing families apart
Children with summer dreams
Were condemned to death
Tokens instead of treasures
To the bloody second amendment
More important than their lives
The eighteen year old butcher was
Terror enough to take, too
Courage and conviction
Overgrown egos of
Uvalde’s finest and Texas troopers
Convinced their safety
Superseded the lives of school kids
Who were left to die
Crying for help
Smearing blood on themselves
To feign death to survive.
Ninety minutes flew bullets at babies
While Texas law enforcement
Did nothing to cease the carnage
The killer roamed the halos
Whispering “Time to die”
As a two hundred plus year old paper
Justifying muskets in personal hands
Came to fruition as an assault rifle
The embodiment of rights
More important than life
More important than books
More important than common sense
And more important than
The safety and education of children
Rained rapid fire murder
Upon children and teacher alike
It took nineteen children
Away from parents of love
Teachers with meager paychecks
Until the “good guys” with guns
Justified their cowardice
And killed the shooter
Ninety minutes was their best response
The parents cried for their babes
As police roamed like rats
Without a purpose around campus
Officials waited three days
Before blabbing away
About “barricades” and doors
Never once breaching the walls
As innocents died by the bushel
Politicians painted in blood
Shouted not to politicize
Rationality for the inexcusable
Gun rights override human rights
Open carry and loose regulations
Trump the right to live in peace
Jesus and thoughts and prayers
Will wipe your fears away
Just as soon as the bullets
Trace ninety minutes or less of
Your life in crime scene paint
And second amendment butchery.
Copyright © 2022 Charles Edward York
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