Fire up your talk boxes
Life’s such a bore
Until we discover
Today’s Rage du Jour

Do we have to turn Red
if they’re feeling Blue?

Does screaming more loudly
make it any more true?

Is it fate we must hate if
They want to make it great?

Must our faces turn redder if
They want to build back better?

What if we hear different voices?
And what if they make different choices?

Do we choose to lash out
always feel justified
As our fears turn to rage
and we’re bloated with pride?

Who among us sees clearly?
Whose judgment is never astray?

What great one among us holds just the right viewpoints
to keep cyber pitchforks at bay?

He said sinless stoneholders
could fire away
Yet there’s rocks hurling
constantly every which way

Can’t we sew up our lips
and ***** up our our ears
and realize there’s much
we can learn from our peers?

It’s hard to see it through our spite
But life is rarely black or white

Whatever happened to nuance?
When did we lose the gray?
How did this digital mob get the power to police every last thing we say?

There’s a whole vibrant world in 4K
We’re all welcome to come out and play
Let’s not label them Other
When they’re truly our brother
Only Kindness can show us the way

Did you lock your empty spirit in a cage?
Allowing it to fester into bitterness and rage?

Were you overwhelmed by the sum of your flaws?
Was there a deafening lack of applause?
Did you even take a momentary pause?
Or were you blinded to the heartache
That your actions would cause?

Did your hoodied face feign apathy
To bury truths no one could see?
Did you bring that gun to class today
To blast your way to infamy?

Instead of scrawling “F**K SOCIETY” on your car
Why not channel that emotion and pick up your guitar?
Or did you feel you were so utterly bizarre
That you had no choice but to leave a lasting scar?
*** made you let things go so far?
You weren’t destined to become just one more shooting star


written in response to the Highlands Ranch, CO shooting at the STEM school on 5/7/19

-Praying for all the lives impacted.