Charles Edward York

Remember Our Children

On April 4 a shot rings out

In a Memphis sky

They took a life

And a truth died there.

Little ones at Sandy Hook

Lovers at Pulse

Danced until shots

Screamed out again.

Black people in Buffalo

Buying food became prey

At a grocery store

Fell like broken lives.

And yet so sadly

Killing fields came to Uvalde

Bought so easily

The lives of children once more.

We preach a good game

In the name of love

Call them our brothers

Or our future,

We watch them forfeit

Their precious blood

For foolish ink

Making guns sacred instead.

A bloody notion breeds

Psychos in waiting

Obsession with weapons

Over little precious possessions,

Cross hairs above children

For firearm fever

Counting brass jackets

That claim multiple bodies

Meant for living and more

Made to grow as

Masterpieces for freedom

But turned to sacrifices

Fodder for rifle barrels

Machine guns

For madmen in waiting

Who get permission to kill

Paid off politicians

Silence their conscience

While innocents die

Losing lives for artificial rights

So remember our children

Our black brothers

And lovers, too

When mothers are weeping

We come for your hearts

Not your rights

But if we must then the guns

And your theft of our lives,

Remember our children

Have rights to peaceful lives

They supersede yours

And in truth are worth more.

No part of this poem may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the author.*