Click, Bang! Reload. & Someone called me a human; I was offended.
Julian B.S.
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Poem 1: Even though I am privileged to live in a very safe city, the threat of school shootings is something I’ve worried about ever since I moved to the U.S from Costa Rica, a country in which gun violence is never on one’s mind. Gun violence affects almost every single student nationwide, whether that be mentally or physically. When writing this piece, I tried to target a wide variety of people, from kids, to adults, to parents, to politicians. I hoped to touch on the fear of everyday youth to relate with families while also phrasing it as a call to action for gun safety and restrictions.
Poem 2: Death tends to be a popular fear in our society. The idea that we all have expiration dates and civilization will move on without us. I can't say that death is a fear of mine, although I'm certainly not waiting with my arms out! Instead, as a second-semester senior attempting to figure out a sliver of my future, I fear that there are too many things I want to do. I'm okay with the idea of death, but I've so conveniently decided that it would great to simply push that day back a little further. This poem elaborates on my thoughts about humans and how we are given the short end of the deal; we have the ability to be ambitious and passionate, but we don't have enough time to follow through. I think writing is a form of therapy at times, and so I looked at this poem as a way to rearrange words and phrases in a way that could help me face my fear.
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Writing allows me to express my creativity while providing another avenue for environmental advocacy, social-political commentary, and calls to action. I find it a powerful way to capture the nuances of complicated topics and emotions by engaging the audience and allowing them to connect the dots.
