Now let us bow our heads for a moment of silence
And so the silence came
Yet you could still hear the faint whimpers
The streams of tears dripping from mournful cheeks
And the deep exhales
Of broken hearts
This silence could have been avoided
If only someone had broken the silence
If only someone had broken the silence
Before body hit pavement
Before siren echoed down city block
Before lead spiraled from barrel and pierced through flesh
Before shaken hand had squeezed trigger
Before individual had reached into jacket
And wrapped finger around cold steel
Before knife was drawn and tore through abdomen
Before baton was unsheathed
And overhead blows softened skin and cranium shattered
Before blood pressure had risen and anger became blinding
Super ceding cognitive thought and restraint
Before fear altered fight or flight
And turned it into strike first
Resulting in the scene we are all too familiar with
Of black suits and dresses
Standing over sacred ground
As floral covered coffin slowly descends into burial plot
Leading to yet another precursor moment
Because before and after violence
There is always silence
So let’s break that silence and detour violence
And whether it’s a phone call
A text message, an invitation,
Gesture of concern, or simple greeting
Like, hey! What’s up?
And let’s turn those preceding moments
Into conversations and replace tears with joy and laughter
Let’s end the silence
And maybe
Maybe
We can stop the violence
BY OSCAR TORRES LEON
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