Poetry

AFP photo

By

Ben White

Emma Gonzalez

Tragedy uncovered

Her bravery

Her honesty

Her voice

Her strength –

A strength of empty-handed

Logic and truth

With the proof of insight spoken

From a heart broken by needless loss

And the cost of life

Marking a reaction of action –

Not hopes or prayers,

But a call to arms

Without arms; an armless resistance

With an insistence on common ground –

For everyone’s child

In a school or a playground –

To sound the warning

And bring

A new morning into daylight

With a fight fought with purity

Against the insecurity of an identity

Basing masculinity and power

On weapons

And forming a false sense

Of self

In the coincidence

Of extreme politics

Where blame has been cast

Too easily on the mentally ill

And not the causes causing

So much craziness

Or the implements available

To manifest the violence

Silence cannot stand for

As she plans for

A different future

With a stronger purpose

Locked and loaded

In an explosive heart

And for my part

I’ll take a supportive stance

To voice a choice and ease her sorrow

And let tomorrow be great (again).

Ben White

Author of the books,Buddha Bastinado BluesandThe Kill Gene, Ben White thought he was a poet, only to find out he is not a poet at all. He is a witness. What he writes is testimony.