Blood-Red, White, and Blue | Teen Ink

Blood-Red, White, and Blue

June 22, 2022
By another_acorn BRONZE, Hollywood, Florida
another_acorn BRONZE, Hollywood, Florida
2 articles 3 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
“And though she be but little, she is fierce!”<br /> <br /> ― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream


There was an old woman

She lived across the street

Threatened with machine guns

Powerful as heartbeats


That took place in a world

Four thousand miles away

I’ve not gone back lately

But recall what we’d say


That in America

The streets were safe to walk

Kids playing in driveways

Painting their worlds with chalk


And when I first moved here

A townhouse and palm trees

I felt so excited

To stand in the light breeze


When I first got to school

The first days of third grade

Were filled with newfound joy

Recess and playground games


But I remember the

First bomb drill I survived

When the siren rang out

My friends didn’t think twice


But the loud noise scared me

This drill felt surreal

I clung to the teacher

We marched to a field


When I reached middle school

We’d start every morning

Pledging our allegiance

To our state and country


But by then we had learned

The way to react when

Our teachers told us that

Our safety was threatened

 

We’d turn all the lights off

And sit by the back wall

We never knew if it

Was practice or real


So when kids in Parkland

Twenty minutes away

Got gunned down like targets

We relived our training 


I am now in high school

Older than most victims

Who were born before me

But lost their right to live


Each of my classrooms comes

With lockdown equipment

We’ve rehearsed what to do

When a shooter comes in


When I wake up each day

And step onto campus

I know education

Comes rife with lethal risks


The murders on the news

And shootings on TV

Have made me feel numb

With each headline I grieve


But I can’t help but think

Of the kid I once was

The one whose heart pounded

At the mere thought of guns


When I immigrated

To the United States

I packed bundles of hope

Inside of my suitcase


I carried promises

That I thought would hold true

But found proud devotion

To blood-red, white, and blue



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