Poetry In Motion: #2- A School Shooting

There once was a boy named Bill;
His whole class he desired to kill.
He entered the school,
Yelled out “Let chaos rule”,
And soon began firing at will.

The police were quickly informed
Of the incident; they had not been forewarned.
They were hurriedly dispatched;
There was a criminal to catch
With a psyche not reflecting the norm.

Bill searched the canteen for victims,
Just hoping pure horror he’d inflict on them.
The slightest breath
Meant that Bill could detect
Someone else in the room, right behind him.

He whipped his head round in a flash,
And he saw a girl move with panache.
The sight of a .50 caliber
Was more than enough to startle her;
To the exit, she was trying to dash.

So, the boy then raised his firearm.
He aimed it at her, intending to harm.
He pounced on a table
That was clearly unstable,
And dropped the gun to his alarm.

Unsuccessful, he screamed a profanity,
And lost what was left of his sanity.
In his murderous rage,
He turned the next page
Of the book detailing this calamity.

He ran after her; wished her dead.
The girl stopped; begged for her life instead.
Her pleas he ignored;
Of her voice he grew bored;
He shot her point blank in the head.

Bill proceeded to laugh heartily.
From then on, he killed all he did see.
Some tripped while running away;
Bill shot them dead where they lay,
Defiling their bodies horribly.

The police now arrived on the scene,
To which Bill seemed to be somewhat keen.
Shotgun in hand,
He would make his last stand;
No more goals, no more hopes, no more dreams.

He took hostage a teacher; took cover
In a room that adjoined no other.
He found a bookcase,
Slid it out of its place
Whilst still surveying around for another.

Blood trickled out from his jaw;
A policeman had shot through the door.
Stumbling back in a fright,
To his captor’s delight,
He soon fell face down on the floor.

In the future, we look back and remember
That day from that long, dark December
Bill, who caused so much pain
(We won’t forget the boy’s name),
Previously thought just to have a bad temper.

But it’s important to know those who had died;
So many tears their families have cried.
Just think of the late
For the family’s sake,
And let them look back with pride.

Too often do we look back and remember school tragedies like this, instigated by a few people, and are only able to recollect the names of the guilty. At Columbine, it was Harris and Klebold; at Virginia Tech, it was Cho Seung-Hui. We aren’t to blame for this as the name of victims are not publicised as well as the names of the people behind the massacres. But next time you are reminded of one of these incidents, please think about the victims and the sadness caused by their deaths, rather than the traumatic impact the killers had. Thank you.