never again will there be an argument
about porn being more dangerous for social health
than the trade of death and its creeping demons
never again will it be okay to sell parenting tips on violence
in mass emails propagating it as a critical skill
normal will never again be numb and
sanity will never again be responded to with hysteria
never again should it be a question of either/or
vigils should never again be for children
never again should hiding from gunshots be a legitimate game
never again, should a ballet dancer have to practice
her agility taking cover under school desks
never again, should beach-loving friends
have to hold hands while holding their screams
never again, should a grandfather be surrounded
by the gloom of fear for his young grandson
the “as usual” life for a parkland resident
will never again include dreams without closets haunting them
scrabble will never again be a favorite family game ever
since the unfinished word was the young girl’s last
never again will there be that ever smiling coach
man enough to have pushed his students behind walls
letting the blood gush out of his own forehead
never again will her favorite chocolate nemesis
be on a dessert menu, each bite if ever will
coagulate the sweetness into heartrending sobs
melting down the throat of a grieving mother
tears will never again mean much more
than an obscene indication of helplessness
the blinding lights on police cars
and single files of teenagers
walking hands above heads
never again will they be innocent again
never again, will the wails of a mother
fall on silent ears and ambiguous words
17 families will never again think of
valentine’s day without bleeding hearts
the stone steps of parkland town
will never again, ever be able to wipe
the stains of the 17 young coffins that lay there
never again, will a hole in a heart
hurt as much as the hole in our collective humanity
never again will we rate and rank shootings
as worst or best ever; because
never again will the stink of rotten death
be enabled due to inaction and subservience
to everything that is insane
never again will we enable a collective abdication
of our responsibility towards our children
never again can despair keep us as awake
as the dread of sleeping through an emergency code alert
never again will we be forced to teach
our children to look out for “that kind of guy”
Kashiana 