The Violence

I awake with a scream,

my ears still ringing

from the gunshots and yelling,

the hymns we were singing.

We march in the streets

and we all yell some more.

But it falls on deaf ears

behind a safe and soundproof door.

I've stepped in the blood

of a fallen best friend,

and I've seen too many children

meet some violent end.

And society brushes

and turns them away.

They look past it, ignore it

'till that fateful day

when the echos of gunshots 

aren't just echoes no more.

We yell and we scream

and we drop to the floor.

When reality jumps them,

gets up in their face.

All the colors drain

until there is no race.

And there is no gender,

no orientation.

Just one broken people

in one blood-soaked nation.

So I call on my sisters,

I call on my brothers.

Your friends and your family.

Your fathers, your mothers.

To all of the people

who will stand and say

"I will will not stand by

for one more dark day."

I will not watch helpless

seeing this morbid scene.

I will not be silent

When I can still scream.

I will not turn a blind eye,

though once blind, I now see

Is this the cost of your freedom?

What's it like to be free?

Do you dare to deny

All the evil we've wraught

By closing your eyes 

When an innocent child is shot?

Do you not feel change,

a need to be new?

Why punish the many

to appease just a few?

I'm calling you out

Calling straight to the top

The blood and the killing

and the violence must stop.