A Tribute to Families and Funerals

guns. 
guns. 
guns. 
how much have they torn from us?

(don't you know our second amendment rights?!
these are our RIGHTS!)
(how DARE YOU try to take them away!)

this is our
children. 
our
mothers. 
our 
fathers. 
our 
sons. 
our 
daughters. 
we are burying memories today.

(how dare we?!)
(YES WE DARE)

goodbye, 
my beloved. 
[the funeral is quiet when the casket is lowered. 
the children are crying as they bury their friends]

(the day we started dying because of your guns
is the day we dare)

we gather here today
in remembrance of 
[a girl on fire]
[a boy with glazed over eyes]
[a girl with blood in her lungs]
[a child a child a child]

(you want us to be afraid. 
you glorify violence. 
you glorify it). 
(you sons of bitches, 
there is no glory here)

words cannot express
how much we miss you. 
[god knows the tears are too much]

(how many of us need to die before you do something?
HOW MANY MORE?)

this is the end 
of a beautiful life. 

(we hold you accountable)
(the blood of all our sisters and brothers
lies upon your head)
(was the money worth it?)

do you even know our names?

(my name is Gina Montalto,
do you even know my face?
i was fourteen, fourteen, 
did i really deserve to die?)

(my name is Cory James Connell, 
i was gonna be a firefighter
before all my light was stripped away
in a hail of bullets)

(my name is Catherine Hubbard, 
and i never got the chance 
to decide who i wanted to be
[i was six when they murdered me in cold cold blood])

(my name is Jack Beaton, 
i dove in front of the bullets
to protect my beloved wife
[love you Laurie]
do you remember my name now?)

(my name is Hannah Ahlers, 
my children, my children, my children, 
close your eyes, sweethearts, close them for Mommy. 
i love you, i love you, i love you, 
i will see you again someday). 

(my name is Liviu Librescu, 
i survived the holocaust, 
[the burning, the slaughter, the massacre]
and when Cho came to my classroom, 
i did not hesitate to protect my students)

(my name is Rachel Scott, 
i was the first to fall. 
i was the first to fall. 
i was the first to fall. 
i could not decide
whether i wanted to be an actress
or a missionary, 
now, well, now i'll never get to be either)

(my name is Jared Black, 
i turned seventeen three days
before my blood consecrated the ground 
of my high school
and my dreams were buried 
in the graveyard it has become)

DO YOU KNOW OUR NAMES?

(when we cry, we cry blood now)

we planted coltsfoot on the graves, 
justice will be done. 
we planted fig marigold and harebell, 
idleness brings grief. 
we planted pheasant's eye and white violets and yellow jasmine,
remembrance of your innocence and grace. 
we planted white clovers and lemon blossoms and rudbeckia, 
i promise to be true in my justice. 

(your thoughts and prayers mean nothing)
(they do not bring us back, 
they do not return our spilled blood back to our lifeless bodies, 
they do not revive our hearts and remove the bullets that killed us)

(and you, you don't even know our names).