Fourty Four Thousand, Nine Hundred and Five

Something needs to be done
Not just said.
Forty four thousand, nine hundred and five.
That is how many people
In this single year
That we have lost
To suicide
To pain
To the hurt we inflict on each other.
For what reason?

We are all human
And yet we choose to treat
So many
Like they are less.
For what reason?

Our human nature should
Not
Be to tear others down
But to build each other up.
And yet we allow our
Neighbors
To fall into that pit
Of loneliness
Of sorrow
Of feeling like there is no tomorrow
And then there isn't.

There is no tomorrow for those
Forty four thousand, nine hundred and five
Humans.
For what reason
Is that number
The longest line in this poem?

For what reason
Can we not smile at others
As we walk past?
For what reason
Do we throw others into that pit
Of loneliness and of sorrow
Knowing that we would
Never
Want to be in it ourselves?

For what reason
Have we all dug ourselves
A giant hole together?
A hole full
Of guilt
Of loss
And of destruction.
This hole that we will
Only
Be able to dig ourselves out of
If we all fill it up together.

So,
For what reason
Can we not start now?

Dedication:
I wrote this poem one night after reading a story about a little boy named Jamel. Jamel was bullied in elementary, and after deciding to come out as gay to his classmates the bullying continued but got even worse. So, just three days after coming out, Jamel committed suicide at only nine years old.
With Jamel’s story in my mind the whole time, I wrote this poem.

This poem is about: 
Our world

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