“In this day and age” is a cliché
That I thought only old people used.
I thought it meant that you were angry
With how things were going in your life,
Or that the past was somehow better than the present.
In this day and age…
what?
Stamps are more expensive?
Your grandchildren don’t call you anymore?
I know that sounds cynical
But that’s what I really believed.

I didn’t really think about it
Until it struck me as odd
That in this day and age
Children are getting gunned down in school
By their classmates, and that
All anyone does is recite
Platitudes and maxims
While parents have to bury their children.

That in this day and age
We can all agree
To disagree
About the worth of human lives,
So that we can carry on
With our daily scheduled programming.

I didn’t understand what it meant
Until I realized that today
Right here, right now
At this very waking moment
Tragedy is socially acceptable.
That in this day and age
Shock and grief and outrage
Have been quelled by a numbness
That comes about only when you see
The same headline
Over and over and over and over
And over and over and over
Again.

This is not a political stance.

That in this day and age
A cry against senseless violence
Is a political statement and not a plea for human life
Is something that I don’t understand.
Dead kids are only an argument now,
and not a ******* wake up call.
I’ll never fully understand why things happen
The way they do. I only understand
That it is tolerable to justify
Our hatred against humanity.