Gunshots At Auburn High School — A Poem
Everybody heard them,
in Rockford, the shots,
were loud enough to
wake up an entire
community to the
needs of young
people whose
first impulse
is to shoot
a gun.
Those gunshots
were coming
regardless. They
represent years
of failing the youth;
of hiding the city’s
truths; of fatherless
homes; subpar,
substandard
education; the
cost of being Black,
Brown, overlooked,
undermined.
And while the gunshots
hit students on Auburn High’s
property, logically,
they meant lessons
to be learned. They
meant “hug your
children!” They meant
“give Rockford’s youth
constructive things
to do!” They were
meant to awaken
you in the biggest ways
because bullets and
wayward youth have
a lot to say!
No, don’t point
your fingers at
the west side.
Don’t you hide
behind that
computer
and talk about
Black people
as if you don’t
live there.
Where are your
solutions?
Where are your
contributions to
a more civil
Rockford?
Gunshots equal
war, equal pain,
equal loss of feelings,
are revealing that
we are in need
of constant dialog
about why our children
would rather be villans
than valedictorians!
Those bullets shot
at Auburn High School
are a call for reason,
for love, for understanding,
for hugs, for real policies
that give our young people
a chance to be seen, to be
heard, to be welcomed,
to wake up to warning signs,
for Rockford to find a way back
to real community.
Ultimately, its citizens are
all in denial, if they cannot
see that it still takes a village
to raise a child!
© Christopher D. Sims 2022
