Editor's note: A small bug in YWP's audio recorder prevents us from eliminating the first, blank, recording. The SECOND player is the one you want to listen to -- a wonderful revision.

1 month ago today,
When 17 people were killed,
I felt nothing.

I could not feel the shock
Of 17 bullets leaving a gun
Could not feel the weight
Of 17 bodies hitting the floor
Could not feel the agony
Of 17 bullets entering 17 bodies
Or the devastation
Of 17 families losing 17 loved ones.

I am 17 years old
And I have already learned to forget
To push each new gunshot out of my mind
Because I tell myself
It can't hold any more
It shouldn't hold any more—
But I'm done forgetting.

Because the thing is, I'm right.

A 17-year-old mind
Should not have to hold
17 lives and 17 deaths
That could have been saved,
Could have been stopped,
If a 19-year old boy didn't hold
An AR-15.

So I am done forgetting,
We are done forgetting,
And dear country,
You should be too,
You shouldn't need our reminder
And that is why
We are telling you

1.
Protection is for people,
Not guns.

2.
"School" and "shoot"
Are two different words
That never wanted to be a pair.

3.
Say "secure the building"
And it will alarm us more
Than the fire alarm.

4.
Our teachers can't sleep at night
Because they realize
That they might have
To save our lives.

5.
They know that more guns
Won't stop that because

6.
"Guns and Schools"
Should never have to be the headline
Of a small town newspaper so

7.
Why should it be our country's plan
To bring the two together?

Have we forgotten
That finger guns
Aren't the only things banned
On the playground?


#writersforchange