Why Do We Expose Our Young People To Daily Mindless Violence

they sit in front of the screen, blue light buzzing in their skulls, plastic guns in Facebook hands, outside, the sirens wail like hungry dogs, the streets are cracked veins bleeding, somewhere, a boy is learning to hate. fists swing in school hallways, knives flick open like second thoughts, a mother checks the news, sees another name, another body, another child gone. we teach them how to kill before they learn to live, show them war before we show them love, give them bullets before we give them books. men in suits count the profits, smile as the numbers climb, another war, another market, another grave to dig. and the kids, they dream in gunfire, grow up with bruised knuckles, hollow hearts, laugh at the blood on their hands. when did the world decide that dead boys make good business, that broken minds are easy to control? turn off the screen. open the window. teach them something else.