You Are Not Gone

You went to school,
on a Wednesday morning,
in the afternoon you were executed
for the rights of others.

As you are buried,
in the land of the free,
and home of the brave,
parents weep,
a nation mourns.
You are screaming.

Assault rifles will not silence you,
or the youth who rise up,
to give you a voice,
demanding to be heard
by the generations who let you down.

You are not silent at Columbine in Colorado,
or in Sandy Hook in Connecticut,
or at Virginia Tech.
The students of Parkland, Florida speak for you,
Their voices loud and reasoned,
Resound across America.

They bravely march
and begin a tide of change,
that will not be washed away
in the sea of your blood.

You are not gone.
We hear you.

By Mary Catherine Brady

A poem from Disarm: A Themed issue Responding to Mass Shootings in America