Hadiya Pendleton... a "shining light" stolen too soon

When I learned of the death of Hadiya Pendleton... a 15 year old high school honours student who was fatally gunned down as her and her friends were seeking shelter from the rain January 31 in the Chicago neighborhood of Kenwood... I cried

It is sad that this promising young lady who had just performed at the Presidential Inauguration with her high school band just the week before; is gone too soon

Police speculate, that the the killer who shot into the group of teens Hadiya was standing with, may have mistook her for a rival gang member. When I learned that Hadiya and classmates made an anti-gang video in 2008... I cried.

When I read that Hadiya's father called her a "shining light" I cried... maybe it is because Hadiya reminds me so much of my own daughter, maybe because I grew up in Chicago, and know of the area Hadiya was killed in. Maybe I feel blessed to have survived those streets. I wrote this poem because her death affected me... and I immediately wanted to fly to California to see my daughter...

I cried when I first heard of you

and it could be said that I didn't know you

but I just felt the pain somehow

streched across so many miles

you could have been my child

you all' have similiar smiles

and I wonder where you would have been

if they hadn't stolen you

and it seemed to me you were the embodiment of hope

and now the world bleeds

and has lost a bit of what it mostly needs

"that shining light"

and I wonder what your children would

have been like,

and one day you would have been

someone's wife

but now stolen before the benefit of years

you fill my eyes with tears

another youthfull promise stolen from this wearisome world

you were all of OUR little girl

and without the benefit of your charm

there is an empty space in the

crook of the World's arm

and I apologize for not making the world

a safer place for you

promise i'll try and do better

and as angry as I am right now

I know that we will meet somehow

and you'll be inhabiting a special place

in the Kingdom Of the Clouds

Laurinzo Scott 2013