If The Sidewalk Could Talk
?If The Sidewalk Could Talk?
On July 4, 2022, a?? mass shooting? occurred during the 4??th? of July parade in? Highland Park,?? Illinois??, United States. The shooting occurred at 10:14 am, roughly 15 minutes after the? parade had started. Robert E. Crimo III killed seven people, and 48 others were wounded? by bullets or shrapnel.?
?
The ground shakes beneath my feet.?
?Fireworks? My eyes dart across the crowd,?
?A tiny hand tugs at her mom’s skirt in panic.?
?Cracking sounds split open?
?my brain, trapped in its fortress.?
?
Suddenly, a silence clings to the air,?
?heavy and unmoving, settling in like dust.?
?My mother pulls me back with trembling force,?
?my father walks forward, his figure steady?
?starting to be swallowed by chaos.?
?
The screams explode, thick?
?like the smoke hanging in the distance,?
?it wraps around me, pressing into my chest.?
?I want to scream, to shatter the unbearable sounds,?
?but my voice is buried under the rubble of fear.?
?
Strollers, backpacks, a teddy bear, left behind,?
?the innocent litter of a moment never to be undone.?
?The sudden weight of a world turned fragile,?
?where laughter has fractured into fear.?
?
Mothers with arms flung out,?
?as if reaching can shield the sky.?
?Fathers grasping at the unprotectable.?
?
The sidewalk at 620 central avenue?
?forever stained red with organs?
?painting the sidewalk over smeared chalk?
?of an American Flag.?
?
A nation of storms, I am frayed under the weight of invisible wounds.?
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