News' Story Photos

                                    

                                          
Have you ever noticed 
That in horrifying news stories 
Stories of rape, murder, and missing children
We always show the victim's picture
And in the picture, the missing child 
Is always smiling
Or the teen stabbed to death 
Is seen laughing 
Even the rape victim's 
Photograph 
Is often a photo of her standing proudly
Next to a friend or a family member
A beam on her face
Stretching from ear to ear
                          
Until today
I had never wondered 
Why that is
Why represent such a horrible situation
With such a happy photograph?
                          
I think the reason
The families' of victims
Submit smiling photos
To the news sites and shows
Is because they want the world
To remember their child 
As they were
Before the tragedy 
                          
The parents of the kidnapped 4 year old 
Want the world
To remember their daughter as she was
With a cheeky smile
And with tiny little fingers, 
always covered in finger paint and sand
They want the world to seek for her
As she was
Innocent
Always laughing
Sweet as sugar
They give the news photos of her smiling
In hopes 
That she will return to them
Smiling, innocent, and young
                          
The uncle of the boy stabbed to death
Submits a photo of his nephew
Laughing at prom 
To the New's site 
Because he wants the world to remember
His nephew as he was:
Happy, loud, and
More alive than most people will ever be  
The uncle does not want the world 
To remember his nephew 
As the boy who was stabbed 32 times
By a classmate 
He wants the world to remember him
As the boy who was so much bigger than life
He wants the world to remember him as
The type of boy who danced so energetically  
That the cops got called at parties
                          
All the kids who go missing?
All the youth who die young 
from a stabbing or a shooting?
All the young women who 
lose themselves to rape?
Their photos?
In their photos 
They're smiling 
They're smiling, or laughing, 
or looking of into the distance contentedly 
Because that's how their families 
Want you to remember them
Remember them before the tragedy
Remember them as they were
The murder victims?
They aren't coming back
But please don't remember them
For how they died 
Remember them as they were 
Alive, loud, rambunctious
The rape victims? The missing children?
Seek for them
Find them
Love them
Help them get back 
Not to how they were
You don't become a person again
Some parts of themselves will stay lost forever 
But help them find their smile again
They won't ever be the laughing
Carefree person 
That they were in their News' story photo
But they will be happy again
They will one day laugh, smile, and be content
Once more
So please, find them
Seek for them
Love them.
There is still a hope to be found 
and a hope to be remembered well
In this tragic world.
Help find that hope
Help remember the lost