A poem a day for 2013 - day 33 - poem 3 - Hadiya Pendleton

I am so tired of writing poems 
About babies dying for nothing
I am ill in all ways 
Of babies dying
Because somebody fired a gun
Where people were just living their lives
Where children were just playing
Playing hide go seek or freeze tag
But freeze tag is just a game
Somebody unfreeze this baby
Before I lose my mind
Before the world loses its mind

This is no poem
This is my breath leaving my body
If there is another body
I will write another poem
For what good it does
That is my work
Those words won't make a difference either
I am falling out of hope

Who can write a poem 
About a fifteen year old girl
Hearing a gunshot
Running away
Losing her life

Who can write a poem 
About anything else

Sweet Hadiya
O your smile
Your eyes
Your perfect face

This is happening
This did happen
I have to keep 
Scribbling your name
With my bare dry fingers
To remind myself
That this is the world
My tears and out of breath self
Are just not enough

I don't understand, Hadiya
Hadiya
Hadiya
And so what if I did understand
Would my new knowledge stop 
Babies like you from dying
From being chased down by bullets 
And being tagged it