when terrorism reached its hands
into my inconsequential city
i wasn't quite sure what to think
the mosque was a place of worship
where people gather to pray and heal
but that lone wolf dropped a bomb
into that peaceful place
during their morning prayers
what possesses someone to do that?
can you tell me using the 26 letters?
can you please help me understand?
why in my city?
why in that beautiful place?
why do those who do not understand
others react with violence and hate?
can't they see the pain on the faces
of those now afraid to pray?
can't they feel it in the air?
taste it in the rain?
hear it in the wind?
because i can, and it's terrifying

When every inch of my feelings don’t matter anymore
I write on a blank page with all I got, hitting back
Tell my brain I’m wrong even when I’m right
What if human race doesn’t exist this way
Yes! We slay every life we get hold on
Never matter their feelings when the priority is ours
And when your help descends as you see some fortune
In another hands, to celebrate his victory above all
And ever time you cry pleading help from God
Only this time the wild creature which ****** a million
Would turn screaming that he messed up, ruined his destiny
****** up lives that mattered the most, a moment of silence
All you listened to is to those white BS and Black dollars
Will you ever trust a pathetic white or a black ordinary?
Governments racing their ways to the top hiding crimes
Of their own, leaving innocents behind bars away from love
Will you ever listen instead of hearing? You’ve ****** up
Yeah, several times, something tells me you won’t watch their back
You know time comes when all these will turn upside down
Then where are you running with all these wealth and fake pride
Black eyes and red shirts, pools in shredded tears to a wide Pacific
Your slavery business is world wide, you put it on silence
You always put it on silent, when legends thrive for their kind

“Give up trying to do anything.  
            nothing works works.”  
            From a note written by
            Scott Allen Ostrem


If only you came to buy
another cell phone, a pen and
note card, some crayons &
paper.  Anything.  Anything
that would give you a voice.

If only you bought the
fixings for a satisfying supper,
or a gift for a lost lover.
Anything. Anything to help
you express your distress.

Anything to free your
words from the prison of
your maddness, anything
to thaw your frozen tongue,
anything to return your
manhood,  other than that gun!

Anything.  Anything.   If only . . .

By:  Evelyn Augusto
For GUNS DON'T SAVE PEOPLE POETS DO 2017

"You Keep It"


You keep it
Don't want your pain
Ain't we all got enough?
But that ain't all there is
Excite me with false torture
Don't want the real thing
You keep it
Except on the news
Can't get enough
Birds fly south we ain't looking
Watching blood puddling on the side-walk
At six and ten
Can't get enough
Even watch the re-runs
Can't get enough
The insatiable hole
Can't get enough
Dream it in dreams
Can't get enough
Play it in games
Can't get enough
Till the end of days
Can't get enough

The immense joy
That flaunted with celebrations
That attracted others
The homeless wishing for such
Is not the beauty I wait for

The multi-faced world
Of multi-minded people
Pouring champagne after war
Will always be the same
Except for the dead

So now
Here alone, waiting
For some miracle to appear
Finally paid off
With scattered hopes for mankind

They still **** each other
my friend
Love,
your human friend

What if I just sat myself in the chair with open ears to silence?
In quiet, would the voices play over and over, even then?
What if I unplugged myself for a moment, no longer?
Would it be time enough to see the vitriol I become?
In quiet, would my love be renewed?

In quiet, would I realize the pain created by hating the hater?
More than disparate views, I hate anger. I hate violence.
The master's walls resist the master's tools, I read it.
Even she, she would despise my guise. "Oh, really?"
She'd maybe say, "Get lost. Be gone." I feel it.

What do I do when I'm part of the crew hated?
Do I spend my days hiding or out fighting?
What do I do when I'm part of the crew hated?
What if I want to change minds and hearts slowly?
What if sudden, forceful changes break us?
I think you know the answer -- we're primed to explode

And I don't
Believe a racist, transphobe will ever love me, or learn me.
And I don't
Believe a word, a turn of phrase, deserves a bullet in the brain.
And I don't
Believe for a second that I'm anything but truly naive.

And I don't
Believe that's bad.