Death’s protégée stalked Virginia Tech’s hallways with a loaded glock                         

Armed and dangerous, his name was Cho, about to leave America in shock                     

A ticking time bomb, filled with hate, set to go off on 4/16 at about 9 o’clock                    

Taking with him 32 innocent lives who had no idea of why they were being shot

Without a word, he executed his classmates and teachers with murder in his eyes                

No mercy, no compassion, these fallen given no chance for farewells or goodbyes              

Cho, a tortured soul, who felt it was far more painful to live than it was to quickly die           

Twisted by bitterness, resentment drove him into a rage, unable to hear his victims cries

The reasons for this carnage were revealed in all their horror the next day on NBC               

In the form of a manifesto, a list of grievances, for all the world to hear and see                

A veritable blueprint for murder, the trigger for a school’s largest ever killing spree

As police officers, amidst a flurry of snowflakes, sought cover outside behind the trees

Many reached out but it wasn’t enough to keep him from becoming the grim reaper             

Which begs the real question, how far must we go to be our brother’s keeper?                   

Wounded hearts, with explosive anger, it doesn’t take much to rouse these sleepers             

That has fashioned a long string of copy cats who attack fellow students and teachers

We can’t force the troubled to seek help or lock them up and throw away the keys  

If we did we’d reap the whirlwind; thus, eroding America’s freedoms by degrees                

Then coming full circle, back to the start, no individual rights on which anyone agrees

It would be far easier if we sought God’s advise before His throne, humbly on our knees!

 For without God’s help we’ll continue to fight an enemy we can’t see or understand

An unseen evil force that pollutes the minds of the depressed like this young man

One wonders if it wasn’t the devil who placed that gun into Cho’s waiting hand                 

Weakened by rejection, an easy target for evil’s impulses he couldn’t withstand

None of us can turn back the clock and reverse what has already been done                      

All we can do is pray for those who have lost brother, sister, daughter or son                      

A prayer of comfort to lift up those who have lost all at the point of a gun

As church bells ring, flags at half mast: so, they know we with them are one!

Doug Donovan 4/23/2007