When will we be
mad enough,
sad enough,
when will we have had enough
of our schools
becoming target ranges
for angry and armed
men and boys?
Schools are meant to be
sanctuaries where
easily bruised curiosity
is nurtured into
wisdom and hope.
Instead our schools
have become factories of fear,
our children trained to
silent duck and covers
under desks and behind cabinet doors;
our teachers contracted
by hearts far more than paper
to be living shields.
The American answer?
Give our teachers guns
instead of books,
give them weapons trainings
instead of teacher trainings.
Closing our minds and hearts to these truths
makes us no less complicit
as we continue to fail our youth
and warp and wound
what it means to be a boy and a man.
And so I ask again,
when will we have had enough?
