DON'T SAY "PRAY"

After Apalachee, Uvalde, Sandy Hook...

I am not there

for “thoughts and prayers”

pacifying victims

pleas to savior and slayer

heart in hand

head in sand

I get to dream

while you live nightmares

expire to the racket of the “right to bear arms”

the freedom to suffer permanent harm

Chanting charms meant to soothe and silence

while giving goons with guns a pause

to reload the old rules

shooting you down to shut you up

as their street bleeds into your school

You are given life to be a live target

Light shined on to be better seen

Pushed into the path of least resistance

fooled to fake a dream

You don’t get

You get gotten

Expected to have already forgotten

The future you earned

traded for bullets and bullshit

Blasted and burned

Our dreams from your nightmares

palliating thoughts and prayers

We kick the kids for being “just kids”

Hook you into a habit

hoard the best for the old

let lost youth be thrilled by its own finish

wake up already sold

“thoughts and prayers”

turning dreams

into nightmares

And so you are

Turning away from our lives

Towards something stronger

Not for you some wish on a failing star

but acting-up assembling layers

insulating and activating

damning deadly thoughts

killing passive prayers