The Real Horror

Gather round, I’ll tell you

A story that’s not my own

A most dark tale about this place

That we all call our home

Shielded by the true north

A place for the strong and the free

And yet you’ll find a haunted past

If you look at our history

You could find freedom here

If you followed the rules

But the freedom was not for everyone

Not in residential schools

I could tell you tales of murder

From last year or the one before

But if you really want to know

About Ontario’s horror and gore

Then you’ll have to hear this tale I tell

Of our own hidden shame

About the stealing of their children

And the taking of their names

Sent to this place for structure

Assimilated to the new

Sugared up in the history books

If only any of it was true

A school is meant for learning

For growth and for some fun

A place for children to be children

A place where they can run

But these schools were not filled with

The fun and the laughter

When we think about it

We can only feel sickness after

Schools run by ignorance

Fueled with entitlement and hate

Instead of learning lessons

Classes held to discriminate

Teachers not a council

To turn to as a muse

Instead the teachers were the source

Of their pain and their abuse

As if it were not bad enough

That they came here at all

But then those people turn around

And think they can rape them all

It was not just the indigenous

that they all lied to

For generations of their own

Would go on not knowing the truth

The truth about the extermination

That they tried to pursue

But most people can’t even fathom

The kind of hatred that was brewed

There is a hill in Brantford

They say was once flat

It stands behind the old school

If you can even call it that

There within the hill

Are all the unmarked graves

From all of the little innocents

Whose lived were not saved

Across the way stands the chapel

Where they were asked to pray

Let’s do it in the name of god

Because that makes it okay

This is not my story

My voice can’t tell it all

But I bet if we listen closely

We could hear the children call

Calling out for freedom

And for their stories to be told

They don’t want to be forgotten

They don’t want to be left in the cold

This is not a place to visit

Looking for horrors and gores

For that, all you have to do

Is be near the Ontario Shores

#HorrorGore