…
Again
Shots fired
Tears flowing
Shock and Anger
Guns in the wrong hands
Again
Innocent people dead
Laughter killed
Thoughts and prayers
Minutes of Silence
Again
Families mourning
Cards and flowers
Funerals
The Second Amendment abused
Again
Anger and hate
Spread by some
Love and care
Practiced by others
Again
Hoping that things will change
…
I wrote this poem in 2016, after the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. Now, six years later in 2022, I sit in front of my screen and feel as sad, hopeless, and frustrated as I did back then.
Nothing has changed! Will it ever?
Reposted again, in August 2025, after another school shooting nine years later, because still nothing has changed.
Thoughts and prayers don’t work. Only radical actions will, but those in power will never take those actions because of the gun lobby.
Wonderfully written Bridget! So many senseless tragedies … it is as common as just another Tuesday.
Thank you for sharing thism
Thank you for reading!
[…] Again […]
This post touched my soul and teared me up.
Thank you for sharing.
I did not mean to make you cry but I suppose many of us do.
I find it difficult to comprehend such situations – it is important for people like you to speak out.
Six years is a long time. So much could have been changed for the better, yet here we are again. Everything got so much worse. The hatred, now so often openly displayed. Politicians and wanna-be politicians pouring oil in a fire that’s already burning high. I don’t get it.
All these senseless shootings are making me so angry. And I feel so helpless to stop it.
So sad, Bridget. Impossible to imagine how it can change. But your voice is important
Reblogged this on Meritings and commented:
Nothing needs to be added to this. It does make you pause, and wonder “Has the world gone mad?”
Thank you for the reblog. Nice to meet you!
Thank you. You too. I spotted you via Lynz Real Cooking. I too am an ex cougher, gave up my pipe on 1 October 2000 (not that it’s engraved on my mind or anything!) Look forward to reading more of your work.
Ex-cougher…good one. My husband just quit smoking. He is today on day 16, he called it quit without any warning after 46 of smoking. I must have made it look easy 🙂
I am beginning to really think that it’s gone mad for sure. Something’s got to give. We can’t continue living like this!
Wonderful tribute to the victims in Orlando. Such horror, such reality of hatred and ugliness of one man that made many suffer within a short period of time.
I can’t bear this mass shootings anymore, regardless in which country they happen. That’s why I called my poem “Again” because it will happen again and again until we finally do something.
Hand in hand, heart in heart with one person is how it will end as heart in heart and hand in hand multiplies until it overtakes.
Reblogged this on lynz real cooking and commented:
So well put
Thank you for the reblog.
And then yesterday, the tragedy in Leeds. A young woman who cared and has now left behind a young family.
I read about it on BBC, it’s devastating.
I read about it on BBC. It’s devastating.
Thank you so much for your touching poem…the repetition of again, like the repeated violence, pounds on the recurring and needlessness of it….and also, like a beating heart, beats out the pain. Powerful and moving. Jo
Thank you Jo
Thanks for posting this heartfelt tribute.
Thank you for posting this- the words, the photos. I watched Anderson Cooper this morning break down on TV as he recited the names of those lost- so unimaginable this world we live in, such evil. I can only pray good will prevail somehow
The US will continue to have mass killings by their own hand while believing that having assault weapons and guns is a good thing and a right for everyone..
50% of the people in the U.S. don’t believe that.
It’s such a sad and horrendous act. Will there ever be peace in the world? Will there ever be a change? Questions begging for honest answers!!! Love the poem. 🙂
Hoping that things will change … but they never do …
I still hope that one day we will realize that we have to many guns in the country.
It is a very sad week. I wish everyone who posts at the Salon tomorrow would do an Orlando post.
I can post this one if you want. I don’t thin I can do another one without bashing Trump with a few verbal middle fingers.
Great idea. Please do.
Reblogged this on O-pen-u-nated and commented:
I need say nothing to introduce this, it speaks volumes.
Thank you for the reblog. Nice to meet you~!
You too. Can’t wait to read your other posts.