Something Needs to Change

The shots rang out.
There had been a drill earlier.
So they didn’t know what to believe.

Hiding.
Crying.
Dying.

They sat together.
Silently.
As he came after them.

Get that into your head,
Before a bullet does.
That it’s too late for the rest of them.

No second chances after that bullet hits.
Sad.
Unfortunate.

All words used to describe this.
“If only we could have done something sooner.”
Do you really believe that?

Eight school shootings in 2018 so far,
But not far enough,
To get that image into your head.

What will make it change this time.
Nothing.
Because people need their automatic weapons.

“To defend themselves.”
Who needs a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle
Just to defend themselves?

Imagine hearing the news—
Your son, daughter, sibling, or friend.
Stuck in a room.

A single door between them and
Death.
You can’t

Unless it has happened to you
There’s no
“imagining it.”

Going to pick them up.
When the shooter is gone.
The horror is over.

But not yet—
Because they’re not there.
Because congratulations.

Your son, daughter, sibling, or friend,
Has now just become a statistic.
As they lay in that ambulance.

No gun will protect you from that.
That feeling.
That something needs to

Change.