Forever Marked
by Azima Araoye, Westwood Senior High School
Ms. Araoye’s Senior English teacher, Janine Horrocks, wrote “A student of mine wrote a powerful poem about a 16 year-old Black teen struggling to fit in/belong within the school but also within her friend group. Azima told me about her move from Alberta and her poem addresses the struggles of being a minority while finding and celebrating her own identity. It offered insight and perspective to my students when she delivered the poem in class.”
Walking through the hallways of this teenage world,
filled with the laughter and smiles of youth,
that echo off the walls.
She w a l k s alone.
Turning heads
with her skin,
a tattoo she had no choice about.
Noticed like a solitary note in a symphony of pale faces
in a school where shadows dance colorblind.
Her true laughter, a beat played by the Sakara Drum.
her rhythmic sound that shines through the pop chorus.
Yet, her beats fall upon ears that only hear
the monochrome tones of their own reflection.
Newly sweet sixteen but already bearing the consequences
of a world that colors her existence;
living a life so different from her friends.
The 4 sisters whose bond unbreakable
with tales untold.
Her life experiences shared,
needing to be told
yet they are painted on a canvas with shades unseen
by those who think they know her.
Poor Number 5, just scared and alone.
The waves of ignorance crash,
trying to capsize it
and she, its whole crew;
Captain, Deckhand, and First Mate,
just trying to keep it afloat.
But some days the waves crash harder,
and her voice tells her a different song.
“I wish I was the same,
blending in unnoticed, unseen.”
In the hallowed halls of learning
where minds should be open,
she turns the pages of her own story,
written in ink that bleeds with history;
blood said to never drop again.
She read to be strong,
resilient, to embrace her differences.
But why?
At the young age of 16 told to be comfortable to stand apart.
Let her join.
Let her for once be a part.
Let her be fragile.
For once, be treated with the kindness, respect and care
as though she was an infant,
protected from the struggles she’d face in the years to come.
Listen to her pleas,
and treat her as though she would break.
Let her crumble to pieces,
because strong people break too.
