After seeing the news story about the hate message left for everyone to see in my home state of Florida, I was motivated to write the below. The partial visual of the sign is important in expressing my motivation and the essence of my poem. I do not condone it.

The message read as plain as day.
Its goal to put hate on display.
A mere assemblage of letters
Posed a sanction worse than fetters
On a group whose admitted wrong
That keeps us from getting along
Is loving in their own manner
And flying a rainbow banner.

Interestingly, the method used
Seems like one that could be confused
For a chance, computer error,
Except that this act of terror
Is one inherently human;
Only man wields this acumen.
No machine or computer hates.
They can’t resort to dire straits.

Unless a human tells them to
Still, then they know not what they do.
We’re all primates to a machine
Made of water, fat, and protein.
The way we love or who we are
Doesn’t raise or lower the bar
On human rights and what we’re worth
to a single machine on Earth.

So no, it wasn’t a mistake.
In truth, just some cowardly snake
Fearing what they don’t understand,
Creating their own bogeyman,
And letting everyone else know
They have no plans to learn or grow
but support violence with a sign
Toward those whose beliefs don’t align.