A note from Series Editor Sarah Marcus-Donnelly: Born from a powerful in-class discussion that we had about gender, race, and the role of masculinity in rape culture, many of these poems are an analysis of gendered, racial personal experience and a study of our intersectionality. This poetry series was inspired by a HuffPost essay I wrote called, “Why I Teach Feminism at an Urban High School.” The poets featured here are all current students whose work I found to be brave and progressive. Please help me support their crucial and influential voices.
I chose this poem for its insistent rhyme that is both grounding and unsettling. The devastation is palpable, and the vision of a violence-free future is essential.
Shell
Life is an empty shell
because of a shell.
I wonder if you fly in the sky
or cry in hell?
I hope your killer rot in jail
in an uncomfortable cell.
As I sit back and reminisce
the memories bliss–
I remember the near miss that almost kissed
My skull instead
it leaked your lung
then the blood
ran down as your eyes hung.
Still, in that moment, it never seemed real.
Till I heard the sirens squill.
I still remember the feel I caught
the chills but didn’t cry, and I can’t
remember why, but I had this feeling
that day I should’ve died.
Time moved fast; it was your funeral now.
Tears dropped, hearts stopped
The room froze,
you could hear a penny drop
The preacher walked
to the stage, cleared his throat
and flipped the page.
Said a prayer to start
then read off your obituary–
your age,
the whole crowd sighed in dismay.
They said, “He was a good kid,”
“He had bright future,”
But all I thought about was the weapon
that took your life was a Ruger.
And as I sat I had a dream
like Martin Luther King Jr.
of a world filled with peace.
Man it was nice, you could walk down street
without looking twice.
You could walk at night
when the lights wasn’t bright
without hearing gunshots left and right.
Then reality set in, and I was back
in the war zonewhere guns are easy to get in.
And at least once a day
somebody becomes “a dead man”.
A place where hope is destroyed
and the whole country wants to fit in.
With the depiction of weapons
that Hollywood is setting.
But they’re not showing the truth,
because the truth don’t sell.
We watch as it fails the youth
and floods the cells.
It’s time to break through the shell
of ignorance.You can no longer
claim your innocence.
You just need to open your eyes;
they say it’s a beautiful world, but it’s a disguise.
Cause every other day, a child’s mother cries,
as their precious one floats to the sky.
At the hands of the “necessary evil,” the picture deceitful,
because if they get one, you get one, we all get one.
We need to change the soil
that is growing the seeds doing the bad deeds.
Like cutting the dead roots from sick trees.
Cause now we just watching the leaves
turn brown as the sun goes down
nobody looks around to notice that world
is a continuous run from danger.
The feeling when a stranger can rearrange
your life, wonder where we made a left
cause this world ain’t right.
Robert Garrett is a high school senior who enjoys reading, social activism, and volunteering. He loves playing baseball and is a 4-year starting centerfielder. He is currently very busy applying to colleges.
As It Ought To Be 