Student Voices!: “We Shouldn’t Be…” (A Poem) by Monika & Jordan with an image by Serine

The best way to learn what kids are thinking & feeling is by listening to them, so I am happy to share my students’ voices!

We Shouldn’t Be… by Monika & Jordan, 7th Grade

We shouldn’t be scared,
scared of the guy with the bullets
who can end our lives with a push
of a trigger.
Shouldn’t be scared of the people
who have jobs to protect us, yet murder
us without thinking what we’re up to.

We shouldn’t be scared
scared of the big bad men
who look at us like we’re a meal
and lick their lips hungrily.
Shouldn’t be scared of being beautiful
even though we were all made gorgeously.

We should be scared
Scared of loving the wrong person,
scared of THEM who will judge us
because of who and what we love.

We shouldn’t be scared
Scared of being judged by what we wear
or how we do our hair instead
of being judged by how we act
and hand situations.

But guess what? We are.

We are scared of the bullets that are
out there in the wrong hands.

We are scared of being beautiful
because those men would kill for us.

We are scared of loving because
THEY end up hating us.

We are scared of wearing the
wrong thing or saying the wrong thing
because of THEM.

They, them
It’s the world.
We are scared of the world. But we shouldn’t
be anymore. Let’s stop being scared.
We are strong. We can overcome the
fear, only if we come together. We
don’t have to constantly be in fear.