The Price of Hatred

The shots ring out, the bodies fall.

A silent scream is heard by all.

The siren sounds, the Mothers cry.

The children hang theirs heads to die.

The anger grows, more guns for hire.

More children caught in the line of fire.

The violence spreads in fits of rage.

No life is sacred, regardless of age.

Why can't they stop it? When will they see

How much happier our lives could be?

Where will we be without the smile

That can only be seen on the face of a child?

Tell me, then, where the future will lie

If all of our children should suffer and die?

For, even in life, death rules their souls

If their hearts are taught to be bitter and cold.

For every child's life, a generation is lost.

So what, in the end, will this violence cost?

For one block of "turf", three children taken away.

Is it really worth what they have to pay?

If you're thinking it is, consider this...

What if YOUR child were on this list?

Then would the price be any more

Than you ever thought it was before?

You should remember this and bare in mind

That if violence continues, you, too, will find

That your innocent child is a victim as well,

Because of death or life in jail!

You hold the seed that determines our fate...

Life filled with love or death due to hate!!

© 1996 Bonnie N. Ramsey

Published in the Bolivar Commercial in an article about gang violence.