Requiem for Those Who Died Young

This is a requiem for those who died young,

An innocent victim to a bullet from some gang bangers gun.

A song of mourning I sing

To quench death’s angry sting

I say a final goodbye

On behalf of those left to cry.

Some loving mother’s daughter or son

Never again to see another sun.

Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time

Another victim to black on black crime;

Their life taken by one of the body snatchers in the hood

We should hate them for the crazy things they do-we should.

I find myself feeling sorry for them instead,

Because it’s only a matter of time before they too are dead.

You see, there is no sinful act for which we will not pay

It’s only a matter of time before it’s their day

And their name is added to the list of those who have succumbed

To a bullet from some gang banger’s gun.

It’s a vicious cycle that only repeats.

Death only cheats,

Cheats those who have so much to give

Of a chance to live.

It’s sad when undertakers find themselves being put to the test

By the burdens that come with laying so many children to rest.

I’m tired of hearing about black on black crime

And young men and women doing time.

My heartaches

Every time I think of what is at stake.

I can’t begin

To understand why

So many tears have to be cried.
I herein decry

Nothing can justify

What our children are doing to one another.

Surely, our forefathers didn’t die for us to experience this.

Something is definitely amiss.
We’ve got to uncover a solution soon

And end this cycle of doom.

We’ve got to launch an attack.

It’s time to snatch our children back

From the hands of the enemy

And set them free

From the dungeons of despair.

Father’s and mother’s you’ve got to be there

To keep your children from going astray.

Most of all you’ve got to pray

If you fail in this responsibility

Your child may be the next casualty.

Some gang is waiting to welcome them in

To their den of sin.

We’ve got to find a solution

In order to bring an end to these senseless executions.

Young bodies don’t have to be lining the walls of our mortuaries,

Children’s names shouldn’t be filling the pages of the orbituaries.

I wish there was some way to make our children see

That death doesn’t have to become their reality.

Too many children are being traumatized

And terrorized

By what their young eyes have seen.

At night, they cry out and scream

As they subconsciously think about the stories they hear.

They live each day in fear.

We have a problem that desperately needs to be solved

Or the cycle of death will continue to revolve

From generation

To generation

Until all that is left

Is an ever-prevailing stench of death.

copyright by P. Newman-Harris


" We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.