in sixteen seconds,
bang…
bang, bang, bang, bang.
two young breaths
cold and glass-eyed.
behind’s a pair
of teen-hands.
instead of his
birthday cake,
with a pistol, he
blows his own
mind last.
in sixteen seconds.
another school joins
an exclusive club
no one dreams or wants.
in sixteen seconds
the sky gulps,
to welcome
another batch
of tender buds
brutally picked off
from earth’s
bullet land.
Well described heartbreak. Unfortunately they aren’t myths.
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Yes. Scary and sad reality.
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The world we live in is so heartbreaking. You captured this perfectly within your lines.
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Sigh. Thank you and I cannot agree more, Diana.
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This is such a heartbreaking scenario!
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It is. And the saddest part is that it’s true. It happened.
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These tragedies happen all too often.
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Yes. Too frequent. ;(
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Ohhh my heart sank…🙏🙇🙇
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yesss. mine, too. 😦
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Sadly, this is timely. Another horror.
“the sky gulps,
to welcome
another batch
of tender buds
brutally picked off
from earth’s
bullet land.’
My friend was telling me the other day, she took her grandchild shopping for shoes….elementary school age. The grandmother picked out a pair of those sneakers that when you move, they flash lights on them. The child says No grandma….I can’t wear those. I’d be afraid. When asked why, the child says if a shooter comes to our school and I move, he would find me.
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Oh. Oh my. 😦 I got goosebumps. They are so young and innocent but these frequent horrors is training them to watch out for themselves. People of power, look how you’re making of these kids. 😦
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Senseless. They all are. But they won’t do anything about it.
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That’s the saddest part. 😦
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Yes it is. Sigh.
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Sigh. 😦 Prayers for your country, love. ❤
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Yes indeed. Thank you, love.
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Always, love. ❤
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This is heart-wrenching! You capture the brutality of the world so eloquently .. sigh ..
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Sigh. I hope I need not to know of such horrors. 😦 Thank you.
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you fired off the words of this heartbreaking poem. bullet land indeed.
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a sad sad sad bullet land. 😦 Thank you, Ms. Jade!
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You are welcome.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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So sad. Saugus was where my husband met when I met him. The Santa Clarita Valley was thought to be one of the safest places to live in CA. How quickly that all has changed. Heartbreaking.
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I felt goosebumps. This is really heartbreaking. Sending prayers to your country. I hope some change will happen.
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I mean it was where he lived.
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Understood. Thank you for reading, Judy!
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I timed reading your poem – it can be read in sixteen seconds and it sounds like bullets. I live in a world where guns are not commonplace and I have a fear of all kinds of weapons. They shouldn’t exist, we don’t need them. Your poem sums this up so well. The main question is, why do they do it? Could it be that the world is so awful, they have no hope?
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No sweet sixteen any more… and we will never know of why … the killer is dead and will never be able to answer…
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That is so true. So many why’s and how’s left unanswered.
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stark, timely–important–work, sister
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thank you, brother. it is like a ticking bomb. and i hope it won’t be happening again any time soon.
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