Never Again

School is the place where we go to learn,

Leave in the summer and in fall you return.

School is the place where your teachers teach,

Where your goals and dreams come closer within reach
 

You think school is the safest place in the world,

No one can harm you and your assurance is furled.

“No one would attack a school” you may believe,

So you live day-to-day in a sense of relief

Then one day after school you watch some TV,
And on every news channel you see students flee.
There’s confusion and fear on everyone’s face,
And as you watch you feel your heart race.

Shots were fired, students are dead,

Details unknown but rumors spread.

Someone opened fire in an innocent school

You wonder how someone could be so cruel.
 

Endless prayers and wishes are sent their way,

But the survivors shall never forget that day.

Those who watch think “That’ll never be me”,

So they continue to live their lives care-free.
 

This situation is one we know all too well,

Time and time again, these survivors see hell.

People experience things they never perceived,

They witness massacres they never believed.
 

But the problem here isn’t the “crazy”woman or man,

The problem is the thing that they held in their hand.

That thing that shoots death and takes innocent lives,

With strong, lethal bullets that kill husbands and wives.
 

So why do people have things that cause such harm?

Because our Constitution gives us the right to be armed.

But what I question is why access is so easy,

The lack of control makes my stomach queasy.
 

I don’t understand how people can access a rifle,

It is deadly, though to some that seems a trifle.

After Sandy Hook and Columbine, shouldn’t we know,

That these loose regulations need to go.
 

It’s the same cycle we see time after time,

A shooting, then prayers, and fear of the crime.

But nothing changes, nothing is done,

To stop the bullets fired from the gun.
 

It is time to take action, it’s time to change,

The cycle must end and rearrange.

The time is now for us to help one another,

So that no other gun kills a sister or brother.
 

If Congress won’t stand, then it must be I,

And my fellow peers who are willing to try.

To try for change, to try for redemption,

Something must be done, there is no exception.
 

If the adults can’t agree and won’t take charge,

Then the youth will unite in a mass that is large.

We teens and children stand and unite,

We use our voices to stimulate this fight.
 

You may think we are lazy, that we don’t care,

That we’re just kids who aren’t aware.

But let me tell you, we’re smarter than you think,

And we’ve got our pens ready, we just need ink.
 

We may not know everything or have all the insight,

But for sure we know what is wrong and what’s right.

We see the injustice, we hear the cries,

We want the truth, we’re done with the lies.
 

We may be young, but make no mistake,

We have lit a fire that is now awake.

A fire within to fight for what’s right,

To change the laws and make policies tight.
 

We’re ready to stand for our peers and friends,

Who had to see their lives come to an end.

Ended by violence and senseless acts,

That could have been stopped by simple pacts.
 

We march for change, we walk for our friends,

To ensure useless policies come to an end.

Something must change for the cycle to break,

Otherwise we’re stuck and hearts will still ache
 

We want solutions and we want them today,

The longer the wait, the more that cloud turns grey.

In order to succeed we must repair the disjoint,

But the ideas of solutions are missing the point.

Giving teachers guns will not solve a thing,

It just causes more fear and panic to spring.

What needs to happen is more education,

On safety of weapons throughout the nation.
 

Stricter rules and laws must be put into place,

Otherwise we remain in this wild goose chase.

It’s time for Congress to get off their asses,

And start listening to concerns expressed by the masses.
 

Never again should we see another student dead,

At the hand of a gun that laid their deathbed.

Never again shall we hear the government’s lies,

About their intended plans that they never apply.
 

Never again shall we sit and do nothing more

About injustice we’ve seen and consequently abhorred.

Never again will we settle with “the best” they can do,

The minimal work that Congress has spewed.
 

Never again shall we worry for our safety at school,

May our strength and courage be used as fuel.

Never again will we need the nation’s prayers and thoughts,

After massacres that certainly could have been caught.
 

Never again will we elect liars funded by guns,

Their time is up and their power’s zero to none.

Never again will we sit when we were meant to rise,

So join the movement and watch us grow in size.

But most of all never again will we wait for action to be done,

We are here to fight the battle, and this war will be won.