Shots ring out

gunshots

bullets richocet, smash

kids lined up

back of the room —

 

In the halls and

under desks

they text

If I don’t make it

I love you ...

 

Gunshots

through bullet-shattered

glass-door-glass-

shattered lives

gunshots

 

The elected ones say

Now is not the time —

Our thoughts and prayers,

with every gunshot

our thoughts and prayers,

with every bullet

our thoughts and prayers,

at every funeral

our hands heavy with NRA dollars ...

We grown-ups lower our silent heads

we offer the dead

our thoughts and prayers

 

I — Emma Gonzalez —

I call BS!

Shame on you! Shame on you!

Your silence is killing us!

 

How much money have you

received from the NRA?

I will ask him

I, Emma, Emma Gonzalez

will ask them

 

$$ thirty million dollars $$

buys thoughts and prayers,

I call BS!

yes, that’s what it buys

it buys a killing silence

 

Enough.

 

We are the kids

who your kids are going to read about

in textbooks

we

are going to be the last

every bell

a gunshot,

every gunshot

a bell tolling:

17 dead

teens and teachers

shattered

 

We

are going to be

the last

mass shooting.

 

No more guns!

Enough.

 

It is time

 

for victims to be the change —

we will call out the politicians

in their gilded seats.

We will change the law.

 

We are young.

We will replace you.

 

February 14, 2018 mass shooting

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Parkland, Florida

 

An homage to:

Emily Gonzalez, age 18

Senior at M.S.D. High School

Speech at “Not One More” Rally

on February 17, 2018

 

- Emily Rand Breitner

Boothbay Harbor, Maine

February/March 2018