As many of you already know, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the 2016 Georgetown Summer Creative Writing Institute, which I can honestly say has been one of the best and most life-changing experiences of my life (more on this later). I, along with my classmates, had the opportunity to present at Open Mike Night at the wonderful Busboys and Poets slam poetry theater. I decided to make my poem about the horrific mass shooting that happened on June 12. Here is the written version.

I will always remember where I was

On the morning of June 12, 2016

It was a hot and humid day

I was sitting in a Vietnamese

Restaurant having lunch

When all of a sudden I saw on the flat screen TV:

“50 dead and 53 injured in the worst mass

shooting in American history.”

I pull up Facebook and I see #PrayforOrlando, #PrayforPulse

Terrorist attack on the LGBT community

This was a hate crime.

 

I will always remember where I was on

The morning of June 12, 2016.

I will always remember that America has chosen

To think gun control is not an issue

I will always remember that the supreme

Court decision last June did not resolve the hate

That seeps into our very culture today

And I may be straight but that does not change the fact

How I feel about this.

 

I am scared.

I’m mad.

I’m sad.

I am reminded that choosing to blame this attack on Islam

Shows that this act of hate

Has created more hate.

I am reminded of how easy it is to

Get a gun, yet so hard to love who you love

I am reminded of how every single one of those victims had their lives stolen.

 

I am afraid.

My loved ones are a part of this community.

People who make the world as rich and colorful as it is

What if I wake up and find out on the news

“50 people dead and one of them loves you”

 

What if it’s me?

What if I’m next?

 

What’s it going to take?

What’s it going to take for the world to realize

That 2 men kissing is not a sin?

How many people will be killed before

Guns are not given away like hotcakes?

50 dead, 53 injured

One of them could be you.