Who are we—

in a country that continues to tell young people

"your voice is essential," 

while passing laws that we never pressed, 

laws written with someone else's holy scripture in hand?

 

Who are we, high school seniors watching the news 

in between AP homework, minimum wage jobs, and college courses we take now so we aren't forced to pay for them later? 

Who are we, scrolling through headlines of rights being stripped while we are told "you'll understand when you're older"?

No. 

We understand now. 

 

It is the separation of church and state that they claim to be a wall.

But from where I am forced to sit--with my back pinned against concrete--

it looks more like a white picket fence. 

A fence with gaps in it.

And every day, politicians slip through, slithering their sermons into the Senate, 

their prayers into policies,

their faith into my future. 

It is an issue that is seldom brought to light by means of U.S. citizens.

But maybe that's because citizens my age aren't meant to notice yet. 

We are to stay quiet.

To plead for aid from a corrupt government that dismisses the power of an educated citizenry.

We are to memorize the Constitution—

never daring to ask why it goes ignored by those paid to uphold it. 

 

I am seventeen. 

I am old enough to see what is happening,

too young to vote against it. 

I am forced to watch lawmakers argue about my body,

about who I can love, 

and whether climate justice is simply "God's will." 

None of this is about protecting life—

it is about control.

A woman’s body is not politics.

I have the right to say, 

I choose me.

But in this world,

choice is considered a crime.

Children are forced to bear children,

but no one calls that violence.

Meanwhile poverty, hunger, sickness, and violence are brushed off as natural selection. 

and I think:

is this freedom, or indoctrination with a more glorious branding?

Is this the American Dream?