New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
I’ve been writing poetry since I was 9 years old. It has been my best friend and my mortal enemy at times. Through my writing I have written about many controversial topics, homosexuality and Christianity, child abuse, sexual abuse, you know all the stuff that no one wants to talk about and everyone wants to pretend doesn’t happen.
Never have I written something so important to me as the poem I am about to share with you. My hope is that it will inspire a change in the city that has held my heart for 35 years, but I also pray that it inspires you and challenges you, the person reading it, to get off your behind and be the change you want to see in this city because this starts with us. Please read this and take the second to share it, but then also take the next step and that is to reach out to our youth.
New Bedford Strong
Heather Trombly 6/7/17
Where do I start, where do I begin
Am I the only one who sees the chaos we’re in?
We got babies getting shot, stabbed, or jumped
And NO ONE does anything, but get all pumped
Who’s stepping in, helping these kids, teaching them to change
It starts with us, don’t look at me strange.
Accountability starts with us, have we reached out our hand
Have you sat and spoke to these kids who think no one understands
Have you shared your story about what you’ve overcome
So these kids know someone gets it, or do we continue to look dumb.
As a society we need to change
People are more worried about panhandlers, and that to me is deranged.
We are losing our young men, to the gun, or the knife
And yet we continue to sit back and leave them alone in their strife.
It is time we step up, parents we need to take back these streets
Rather then watch these kids killing each other, I know its a huge feat
But we need to come together we need to do what’s right
Because its breaking my heart watching these mothers losing babies night after night
We’ve taught our youth that they don’t matter, they are left on their own
Babies toting guns, selling drugs, thinking they are grown.
We whine and complain, and then as adults move away
Don’t you think change would happen if half of you loved your city enough to stay?
You have so many ideas, but how many of those ideas do you actually share
How much of your own time have you given up, to show our youth you care?
This is a call to arms of sorts, a call to love those who seem unlovable
To make the sacrifice, to touch the untouchables.
I know the streets I’ve been on my own since I was Fourteen
So I know what’s its like out there, I’ve seen the blood at the crime scenes.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and our village is falling apart
Everyone has the mouth to complain, but who really has the heart?
Our youth is screaming for a leader, someone to come in, take charge, that they can admire
Someone who is willing to go through the tough times, and carry our babies out of the fire?
But who will stand up, who of you is willing today
To stop thinking about yourself, and show a different way.
Everyone wants to cast blame, but who is giving these kids a chance
Our system is failing them, when its suppose to enhance.
Police cant be everywhere all of the time
But maybe had you stepped in instead, these kids wouldn’t be committing crimes.
They are not your responsibility, you worry about you and yours alone
But how hard is it to reach out, to check in, to pick up a phone?
This is our community, if we wont stand up for it, then who will?
We have done nothing but watch more and more blood spill.
I know this problem with the south and west has been longstanding
But when do we stop facilitating violence and promote understanding?
These are our babies we are losing on the street, not grown men, making bad decisions
These are babies born with hope and dreams, New Bedford, come together what is our vision?
We have lost focus on what counts the most, and that’s seeing our youth excel, propel and grow
For children tend to live what they’ve grown to know.
Enough talk its time to stop focusing on the problem and start creating a solution
What we need as a community is a love revolution
Where we act as one and reach out to those that have lost
And give them the love and understanding they need, so no one else pays the cost.
We all want to protect our friends and family, but we are doing it all wrong
Its time to come together, it’s time that we become New Bedford strong.
How many children have we lost to this fight
How many more will we lose before we do what’s right?
– Heather Trombly
Your poem is wonderful but you forget one important thing it not so much the kids as it is the parents. The parents should be held responsible. Instead they defend them. in my day if someone told my parents I did something wrong ….trust me my ass would sting for a week,now you can’t do anything and most parents are teaching them to act the way they do…
Children today are not held responsible for the dangerous life they lead or actions they do thinking it’s normal. How about Respect for themselves, as well as everyone around them. How about morals, curfews, helping one another, be fully mature before getting involved with wrong people, & taught right from wrong. Too much violence around them whether right in their homes, outside their homes, on television, & in video games that they play. Thoughts & Prayers Daily for change in the world around us.