Ninety Minutes

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Superseded the lives of school kids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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