USA Today

five people were killed

4 killed

killed three children

Only 100 days and 5000 people have died

children

injured

killed

dead

the Nation is divided.

rage increasing.

more school shootings?

evelyn dieckaus

hallie scruggs

william kinney

Tennesse 2023

let us live.

My poem is titled USA Today. The state of the United States is as divided as it ever has been, between policies, laws and beliefs it seems that nobody can agree on a single thing. However, despite all beliefs and differences, the one thing we all relate to is death. The death of relatives, friends and even strangers that we hear all over the news. That’s all we do, we hear, we listen and we have become contemptuous with how much death is in our world. It is as if we are all just waiting for the next tragedy to be reported. Many of us wait patiently for when these tragedies will strike too close to home because they are almost inevitable to avoid. In the United States we the people are afraid, we the people are angry and we the people do not want our children dying. School shootings have been occurring much more frequently this year than they have in decades and we are only 1/3 of the way through the year. The main focus of my poem is the current state of the United States, particularly concerning how much death, especially to gun violence there is. That is why I chose my original article titled “100 days into 2023, Louisville attack marks nation’s 146th mass shooting and 15th mass killing”, this true fact upset me. I wish it were false or a nightmare but it is the reality of our country. Death and violence should not happen regardless but for it to happen this often is inhumane. 

The beginning of my poem emphasizes how often we see the words x amount of people killed followed by the shocking statistic of 5,000 deaths due to gun violence in 100 days. I then took inspiration from Zong! with my next line where the word children is attached to each following verb. The nation has been divided, rage has increased and the question that plagues many minds is why are there still more school shootings? I then chose to include the names Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 year old students that were killed in the recent Tennessee school shooting. Their lives were lost so young but they deserve to be remembered and embraced for the impacts they had. My thoughts and prayers go out to their families and all others affected by their loss. As well as to Cynthia Peak, Mike Hill, and Katherine Koonce who all lost their lives in the Tennessee shooting. Finally, I include the poem with the line “let us live”, this may be interpreted in many ways. Such as a message from the children murdered in the Tennessee shooting, a reaction from all kids terrified to go to school in fear that they will be killed or just a general message from anyone asking for this senseless gun violence to end. While writing this poem I felt a looming sadness because of the reality of the subject but I also felt I could not write this poem without paying respect to the children that were killed so recently. Any and every school shooting and mass shooting is a terrible tragedy with people undeserving of the actions of another. The trend must stop because if it does not how long will it be until our school is a target or our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends are killed. Nobody deserves to die especially at the hands of another and hopefully one day we will be allowed to live.