today another record broken
another milestone passed
seventeen new innocent bodies
tossed in to the mass grave of common sense
our children betrayed by a government filled with traitors
beating their chests and waiving their arms
invoking the memory of a country years ago
determined and singularly decimating multiple generations of human beings
ended by world war
while fixing their faces into masks of compassion and sadness
hiding a core of malevolence and greed
simultaneously offering a hand of solace
while hiding their payoff behind their backs
not unlike that of a cartoon villain
Seventeen new deaths
when will it end?
seventeen to join the thirteen
seventeen to accompany the twenty
when is it enough?
hearts and minds, thoughts and prayers will not a solution become
this, by definition, has become insanity
the same words, the same thoughts
all repeated over and over again
the promise of new hope massacred
on a day reserved for a love of capitalism
a country, a subset of humanity
willfully blind and deliberately ignorant
terrorizing the future of our nation
with complete disregard for the sanctity
of human life and of social progress
when will we learn?
seventeen woke up today never knowing
that they too would become a statistic
ignored by the very people elected to serve their interests
to do what they can to ensure
that they would grow up to a prosperous future
filled with equal opportunity
seventeen
who join the thirteen, the twenty
the many others that have come before them
and the many that will likely follow
because our country is run now
by brigands, by thieves who worship the god of wealth
instead of humbly serving their sovereign country
and holding precious the lives of its youth
outside the wombs of their mothers

© Johanna Kaye Fugitt 2018