"On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack—also considered a hate crime—inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida" (CNN).
Shortly after this occurred, my friend Paul Radin and I began spending our days conversing between emails in an attempt to create a piece that conveyed our feelings towards not only this hate crime, but the act itself. Acts of violence are increasingly prevalent in the days of which we live in, and we offer our condolences to family and friends of each victim, as well as the witnesses who now bear the scars of June 12th, 2016.
This piece is titled "Hollow."
The same images fill our eyes again and again
it happens all the time, but we never know when.
Can we finally ask the question
and demand a reply?
No one else has to die.
From the ground they have risen
to their graves they were led
difference in opinion and a bullet in their head.
Collapsing, relapsing
it’s in my blood
collapsing, relapsing
that was somebody’s son.
The broken can only keep breaking
crippled down with our freedom for the taking.
See the pain, feel the fear
allow my heart to catch each tear.
Another face in the soil
that was somebody’s friend.
Breathe in the decay left behind
exhaling the ashes and numbing your mind.
Drawn from the dust and engraved in it
who could have guessed life’s an endless pit?
Another name, another headstone
that was somebody’s lover.
We can write all the words we want
spend our time searching for the right font
but how far will that take us?
Chaos strikes before we place the period
that was somebody we’ll never know.
Leave it unattended
painted as a surface wound
cover the blemishes with all the lies that have bloomed.
Another stand down, another explosion
from your eyes let leak all the commotion.
Take your finger off the trigger
place it on your pulse
and let your heartbeat tell you that enough is enough.
We are given one shot at life
stop using yours to put a hole in us.
