Tragedy is only a step away

As our children leave the house today

Apathetic parents switch

From mindless sitcoms

To the media blitz

Sensationalistic topics rule

While beauty hides beneath the cloud

Daughters absorb the pain at school

Of twisted minds beneath a shroud

Of a permissive nation

With a communal blind eye

Of men and boys

Prepared to die

A silent scream

From tortured dreams

Cries out to us all

For loving arms

To catch their fall

For time away

From our busy day

For conversation

Eye to eye

For guidance in

These desperate times

We all must rise

And face the day

And help our children

Learn to pray

And give them rest

When they are spent

And help them grow

By changing our world

By waking ourselves

To the result

Of our communal negligence

And shaking off

Jaded intellectualism

For apathetic parents can switch

As our children leave the house tomorrow

And when tragedy becomes two steps away

We will have begun

To heal the sorrow