When Will This Senselessness End? Poem by Jim Yerman

When I was a boy I had toy guns…my parents could buy them at any store…
I played cops and robbers with my friends.
I played cowboys and Indians…and war.

One gun I filled with caps…they came in a little roll, …red and round…
and when I squeezed its trigger…that toy made a gun-popping sound.

Then I grew up, I'm not sure when, and other thoughts occupied my mind
I discovered other games to play…and I left toy guns behind.

Now I'm and adult…I have no guns…but they can be purchased at many stores
People can own an arsenal of weapons…even when we're not fighting a war.

And some of those people are using those guns
To kill innocent people… families and friends…
And after each new atrocity happens we ask….
when will this senselessness end?

Can't those who love guns and those who hate them come together
combining their divergent views…
putting their differences aside for the good of this country
and come up with something to do?

Because we can no longer trust that every gun owner is decent…
and we can't on their own integrity keep relying…
because those aren't caps they are loading into their guns
and innocent people are dying!

Because once again we've seen the horrors real guns can do…
how they can injure and take life away…
Because reality is so much different…
than the games I used to play.

Because we don't want to see another person murdered…
at a concert, in a restaurant or riding a bus…
And because we don't want to worry and wonder…
if the next victim will be one of us?