I wanted to write a poem addressing my thoughts about gun control, rather than write an article with the same standard arguments. But before you read the poem, I would like to share this quote from Hogarth Hughes in the Iron Giant, "It's bad to kill. Guns kill. And you don't have to be a gun."
As the curtain falls on yet another day
The animals watch us and nature feels us
They are confused because they are less civilized than them
As the birds settle into their nests over their eggs
As the squirrels scurry up the trees to find a nice branch to rest on
As the rabbits burrow further into their warm holes for the night
As the ants find their way back to their colonies
They all ponder on how the humans continue to kill each other
As the wind blows the branches of the trees
As the flowers start to bloom in the sun
As the grass grows high because of rain that fell last night
As the snow falls and the weeds wither away
The elements of nature feel the humans as they take away more innocent life
There is a dark cloak that falls onto the Earth
As another tragedy occurs month after month
But who is to blame for this dark cloak?
Is it the perpetrator?
The perpetrator that has a cloud of confusion in their head
That can’t tell what is real and what isn’t
That may be hurting so badly but nobody knows?
Or is it the bystander?
The bystander that knows that there’s a problem
A massive problem that has been occurring for years
But refuses to due anything about it?
The bystander now believes the answer is to become offensive
But how will that stop someone who has a cloud in their head?
No one who has a cloud in their head is thinking rationally
And an offense against a person with a cloudy head
Will just equal more violence and more tragedy
And then what?
The animals and nature will laugh at us
For they know better than we do
They live on in their lives supporting their kind
Or living through the hardships they face
And yet we have always looked down on them
But maybe we shouldn’t
Because maybe they know better
Because we are killing each other
And they are out there, surviving.
