Our Children Are Dying

Listen, this is real: our children are dying,

Not just in the schools, the media is lying.

Kids take their own lives every single day.

A child once posted a video late at night,

That said “Thirteen years is long enough, right?”

and I just didn’t know what to say.

Then there’s this kid by the name of Sam,

Who said “I just don’t know who I really am,

but day by day I can hardly breathe”

This girl, Sara, said “I tell myself everyday,

Just one more cut and the pain will go away”

An aching that could never be relieved.

And another, Alex, who decided to give up.

Said he’d just go since his mom had enough

of the son that couldn’t make her proud.

Many more, like Josh, say parents don’t love them,

Over things like grades, trophies, and not getting into STEM.

Why couldn’t we hear when the evidence was loud!

A girl said a bully pretended to be there for her,

When people found out how abusive things were

every single day when she went home.

Amy said her childhood consisted of caring for her dad,

Who came home drunk or high, spending all the money they had.

These kids never got a life of their own.

What’s even worse, is baby Grace, who had entirely believed,

Her constant assault was normal, from lies that were weaved.

Her innocence ruined, curtesy of her own father.

Amaya’s tears haunt me, who tried drowning in sleeping pills,

Cause her mother forced her to work so she would pay their bills,

But she stayed silent because she didn’t want to be a bother.

And that’s the thing, the reason these kids suffered a long while,

Because all of these kids I mentioned came to school with a smile.

And no one thought to question a single thing.

Maybe it was out of fear, being forced not to say a word,

But I think its cause no one cared to let them be heard.

And so, all those lives were hanging by a string.

I wondered how people could just ruin a child’s life

and I wondered how we could’ve ended this eternal strife

to reveal the reality that was hidden inside.

But thats the thing, we can’t, not because we aren’t able,

But because we didn’t. All the lives I said were hanging by a cable,

are all lives of kids that have already died.