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Tomorrow's Voices Today

Rosie Flores: “Death Toys”

By Rosie Flores on June 13, 2018 in Poetry

Click Here To View Comments

Trust has eroded, but you’re saying
everything is under control
Children killing children because of your rules,
it’s time to revolt
No change because this is something
you clearly want to promote

We see you taking cash, instead of saving
children’s lives
Now we have to teach our children
how to dodge bullets in school to survive
You heard us scream, you heard Peter Wang yell
But all we hear is you turning bullets into bells

You make it seem like guns
aren’t the issue, it’s the person behind them
So you ask questions like “Well, it depends how was it like at home? Did they have any friends?”
You get answers like “Their life at home was horrible, they were adopted, and had no friends.”
You come to the conclusion
that all they need is a therapist,
but it all just seems like another weird way
to define a domestic terrorist

Your solutions to keep your profit
isn’t going to protect us
Instructors with the same weapons
used to kill children isn’t going to protect us
Getting under our desks
More men in blue scouting our schools
isn’t going to protect us

Our trust in you has eroded
and you don’t even know what you’re controlling
Children killing children because of your rules,
that’s why we’re revolting
You make no changes because this
is something you clearly believe is worth promoting

Enough is enough
How many more children have to die
before the leaders of this country begin to wake up
to hundreds of alarms, calculated in mass shootings,
that they continuously snooze
to the hundreds of families
who aren’t able to celebrate
their children graduating from school
because of America’s gun control rules
to parents pleading for better gun control
because a teenager bought the military rifle
that killed their child
to parents who have lost their children
to school shooters because that person’s mental health issues were left unfiled

Quit assuming that gun violence
only occurs in the hood and in the hands of felons
Quit searching for ways to make colored skin a weapon
and start regulating weapons for being weapons
Quit telling us to stay down and quiet
when it comes to our protection
Quit shutting us down because you believe
that the topic of gun control being discussed
amongst students creates controversy

The protection of our lives
should not be controversial
Enough is enough
and we withdraw from allowing you
to let us be exposed
to your death toys
Because a child’s death due to the lack
of a gun control reform, is irreversible

Click Here To View Comments

Tagsgun controlgun violencepoempoetrytomorrow's voices todayyoung poetsyoung writer

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About the author

Rosie Flores

Rosie Flores

I'm Rosie Flores, born and raised in Inglewood, CA. Currently pursuing a degree in English and a minor in Natural Sciences in Educational Development at the University of California, Merced. I’d like devote my life to future youth and POC within my community and others, to improve the quality of education. I’d like to make an impact within the education system and provide educational outlets to help shape future generations of students in low income communities.

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