Please...Do Something...Anything! Poem by Jim Yerman

Sometimes when it comes to how regularly we're killing each other
it seems like we're tumbling inside a flood…
being swept away by the raging waters of destruction…
or, for those left behind…stuck deep in the mud.

I wish our government was like the first governments ever formed
for their designers all agreed…
that the safety of their citizens…
was…their highest priority.

Mesopotamia…Rome…Greece…from the pyramids to the Casbah
the safety of their citizens…was the first and highest law.

But we've reached a point in America…(for some people it has proven to be too late)
where the safety of our citizens…is now something we debate.

It's not guns that are the problem…it's mental health…some say
It's not mental health it's the guns…
and so we dance this cruel and pestilent ballet.

And while we dance…people across our land are hurt…
and some of them are dying…
and all we offer are love and prayers…
while their loved ones stand by…crying

We are not safe in our churches…(follow this pattern-it repeats)
We are not safe in our schools…in our movie theaters, at our concerts…on our streets.

Our citizens are not safe…in this dangerous world we have created
Our citizens are not safe…while solutions are being debated.

The left…the right…the NRA…the president…the constitution…
all spend time in the debate without proffering solutions.

Difficult decisions are, by definition, difficult…but we have reached a climax when…
the safety of our citizens must be our highest priority…again!

We must follow our hearts…mistakes be damned!
We must do something before more of our citizens fall…
Because continuing to do nothing (as we've already seen)
will be our greatest mistake of all!

Unless we come up with ways to decrease the killings
we'll continue to be tumbling inside this flood…
only it's not water that we'll be drowning in…
it's our friends and family's blood.