Stranger with a gun

Standing there with a gun gripped with his hand

Hiding in the thickness of the night, by a plaza where he stands

He watches cars pull in and out people moving to and fro

Staring by their faces, as they rush by him on the go

Who shall be his victim, on that robbery crudely planned

There are many he can choose from, their lives so close at hand

He sees her through the turned up window of her black, Honda motorcar

The easy, perfect target, his next victim, she isn't very far

He hurries to the car door, he forces himself inside

The gun near her head, as she begs him for her life

But they are merely words, they just fall upon deaf ears

Her life is unimportant, he mocks her many tears

And somewhere in the struggle her screams pierce the thick, dark air

She is just another victim, why? Because she's there

He's worked towards jail time her life couldn't have been saved

His disregard is his own, his path to crime has well been paved

So the criminal is the victor, his place had well been earned

And the lesson no one taught him, someone else was forced to learn

But perhaps the biggest lesson that stands out from the rest

Has been forced upon a mother who wonders what lies next

As she stands there at the graveside, where her only daughter lay

Wondering about the horrific event that turned her white clouds to grey

Well, there stood in the alley, a mechanic in plain view

He watched as the man murdered the woman, what else could he do?

The woman wasn't his daughter the young man wasn't his son

He could not risk his own life to stop a stranger with a gun.

- Abi-Gaye Smythe

______________________

You

You have no idea what you do to me

You make my heart skip a beat every time you're near You give me reason to dream again and burn cold thoughts of love

You have ran a scintillating personal best to deep corners of my soul and now sit on the throne of my heart

You stopped my need for forward planning and taught me how to live and love in the moment

Today

Right now, this moment while we're here together and how not to think about tomorrow nor what happened yesterday You You You I love you.

- C. S. Nelson

___________________

People power

He bound

The masses for many years

With chains of deprivation

Oppression and despotism

He trampled on

The rule of law

He violated the rights of the people

Recently

The people struggled to be free

As they struggled and fought

For freedom, the chains broke

Now unfettered

They, with a fiendish zest

Mowed down this epitome

And personification of dictatorship

They pulled down this institution

Of tyranny

It's a new dawn

The oppressed has risen

And the power belongs to the

people.

- Ugochukwu Durueke

______________________

Childhood reflections

I am only one person

but it seems like I am two

because I lose myself daily to follow you

The more I try, the more I fail

giving my best, my all

but climbing this mountain

I only stumble and

fall

Wrong seems like right

and integrity is put on hold

people see me and they judge

but the truth is never told

I run back to you with the cause of your pain

trying to hide self-inflicted scars

you only do it again

You don't know me

all you do is assume

Pulling out the past to haunt me then leaving me confused

Only, this is what I get for being a child

Never learning to laugh

or play with other kids

Not knowing the peace of childhood

Growing up to be an age older

but growing up learning to live younger.

- Whitney Blackwood