I love comedy, I love to laugh and smile I’d been looking forward to this night for a while We were seeing a funny guy crack jokes and jests there's absolutely no reason to be stressed Except the venue was unconventional Great location, the seating was plentiful I didn’t realize where we were about to go So as we walked up my footsteps began to slow My curly hair blew through the air And I uttered a little prayer Because we were walking up to something I knew very well I’d spent my childhood in one if you couldn’t tell The place was a synagogue in downtown DC And all of a sudden I felt I needed to flee I walked inside and my heart started to race Why couldn’t they have had this in a different place? In a flash I’m back on October twenty-seventh Where I watched the news to see that there had been eleven Eleven lives lost for practicing their faith saying a prayer “Baruch atah adonai, please help me, I’m scared” They couldn’t escape and now neither could I Every part of me thought I was going to die There! A man is holding a gun! Come on people! You have to run! But it was his phone, my eyes were wrong Don’t start to cry, please be strong But I started to cry, no I started to sob I held my head, it started to throb I was scared out of my mind I decided I had to resign My mom took me back to the car I needed to go somewhere really far Then, I thought I would feel shame But instead the anger came I used to go to a synagogue and feel love and delight But now all I feel is my fight or flight They took my safe space away from me They said I can no longer just be I have to be scared because "Jews will not replace us” I have to run because goyim want to chase us There were always bomb threats during the sabbath time There were picketers with their signs up, people throwing dimes But I was a child, never afraid No matter what, never dismayed But now I see the casualties climb to terrible heights And I haven’t been to a synagogue since that night I used to be excited to learn different melodies of the sh’ma And then the classic chanting of the v'ahavta But now I’ll never feel safe again I’ll always be looking towards the amen Oseh shalom bimromav, Hu yaaseh shalom aleinu Part of the mourner's kaddish I now give to you I hope there’s a long time before its said about me But it might be soon because I am not going to flea The next bat mitzvah I’m invited to Whoever it’s for, I don’t care who I’ll be dancing and I’ll be squealing The words to the black eyed peas’ “I’ve got a feeling” I’ll always be afraid and I’ll always be sad I won’t stop myself from feeling mad But maybe instead of counting sheep I’ll let the mi chamocha lull me to sleep My life will not belong to the people that want it gone So to stick it to them… I’ll just have to live on