Simple Freedom

By Julie

Posted on December 1, 2023

Cover Image Title: Aerial Silk Chains

Cover Image by Isabella Navas

Classification: Traditional, mixed-media painting

Specifications: 8.4 in X 11.7 in

Year: 2023

Location: Ontario, Canada

The dying rays of searing summer days

Are consumed by the black salt asphalt.

While crumbling displays of clueless children’s gaze

Are destroyed by the pale plain steel chain.

Individuality will be viewed as lethality,

Personality must have functionality.

Conformation hailed and praised trade,

Variation grayed and staid, afraid.

Ingrained in our minds are thoughts for the hive

Children to rules as husbands to wives.

This seems the only way to survive

We, those desperate to be simply alive.

Hard work and compliance over defiance

Constriction, harder and harder to breathe.

But I know the science of tense silence

Is far from who we students should be.

Together, we can break free, rise, and grow

Far from control (blissful, I know).

Lives full of smiles as we desire

And we can rhyme whenever we want. 

Description: 

My inspiration for this poem was the upcoming school year for many adolescents all over the world. Being in my eleventh year of school, I know how it feels to go to schools in new places with new people. I know how there’s lots of pressure to be like everyone else or be the best, following rules that can seem strange. It’s difficult at times, but yet necessary, to remember that we are all different, but we are also all humans. We can make differences together, but only if we want to. You may find the following writing techniques in this poem: Alliteration, hyperbole, imagery, and metaphor.

[ * The End * ]

[Writing Editor: An anonymous contributor]