There was an old woman

She lived across the street

Threatened with machine guns

Powerful as heartbeats

That took place in a world

Four thousand miles away

I’ve not gone back lately

But recall what we’d say

That in America

The streets were safe to walk

Kids playing in driveways

Painting their worlds with chalk

And when I first moved here

A townhouse and palm trees

I felt so excited

To stand in the light breeze

When I first got to school

The first days of third grade

Were filled with newfound joy

Recess and playground games

But I remember the

First bomb drill I survived

When the siren rang out

My friends didn’t think twice

But the loud noise scared me

This drill felt surreal

I clung to the teacher

We marched to a field

When I reached middle school

We’d start every morning

Pledging our allegiance

To our state and country

But by then we had learned

The way to react when

Our teachers told us that

Our safety was threatened

We’d turn all the lights off

And sit by the back wall

We never knew if it

Was practice or real

So when kids in Parkland

Twenty minutes away

Got gunned down like targets

We relived our training 

I am now in high school

Older than most victims

Who were born before me

But lost their right to live

Each of my classrooms comes

With lockdown equipment

We’ve rehearsed what to do

When a shooter comes in

When I wake up each day

And step onto campus

I know education

Comes rife with lethal risks

The murders on the news

And shootings on TV

Have made me feel numb

With each headline I grieve

But I can’t help but think

Of the kid I once was

The one whose heart pounded

At the mere thought of guns

When I immigrated

To the United States

I packed bundles of hope

Inside of my suitcase

I carried promises

That I thought would hold true

But found proud devotion

To blood-red, white, and blue