Kids These Days

We are the changemakers, 

ball breakers,

women of the Z,

the fearless generation with anxiety.

We are the uneducated educated, 

the nuclear.

Unlearned in systems of hatred.

Young enough that we have not yet forgotten 

the lessons of kindergarten,

of kindness and soul.

Old enough that the absence has taken

its toll.

We recognize our prejudice, 

organize behind righteousness, 

give voice to the voiceless. 

Stand arm in arm in solidarity 

but understand our singularity.

We know how to rise 

and lead, 

following simultaneously.

We talk back, 

clap back, 

send back.

Join dinner table conversations with 

“have you considered”

“I can’t believe”

“how are you not acting” 

“standing up to this sort of thing”.

We are the ones on the street 

We are the ones on our feet 

marching out to war

through our backyard battlefields.

We are the D3 soccer players kicking teargas canisters.

We are your friend, 

easily your enemy.

This endless, backwards society 

is ours now.

We are the changemakers, 

rulebreakers,

system quakers.

The dissidents, 

who will not stand for these precedents.

Katrina Write is a junior at Boise High. She enjoys long walks on the beach... scratch that, Katrina enjoys the wilds of Idaho. So much that they can be found easily in her poems and stories. Katrina writes from experience, although not necessarily hers. Katrina writes and simply that.