Two winners were chosen to go on to the VOYA (Voices of Youth Advocates) Teen Poetry Contest from MCPL. Congratulations to Melanie Muniz and Huangzewen Qian!
Happily Ever Afters and Toys
Melanie Muniz
Age 17
We have reached the time between adulthood and innocence
We are expected to trade our
Dolls for dollars
Trains and Teddy Bears for time-keeps
Sand Castles for Swords
We still do Halloween except now it’s every day that we go around saying lies about who and what we are
We still steal cookies from the cookie jar, despite the swelling sickness
As a boy runs away, for he doesn’t want to play a girl comes up and tags him anyway, even though he told her “No means No.”
We play quiet as a mouse but even a mouse squeaks when it can't take the silence
Things will get better they say but they never do, for with every good that comes along, a bad comes along too
And like an apple we grow rotten with age
How long until the evil queen dies and the good guy wins? A child desperately questions but the mother simply shakes her head and says
“The End”
Welcome to America
Huangzewen Qian
Age 16
I was born in China, at night
A small town under polluted sky
I was given pure black eyes
Through the darkness I see lives
I traveled, thousands of miles to reach another land
A land across the ocean
A land dreamed to be fine
But I could still see, see people cry
I asked my warm-hearted friend
Why, why there is trash everywhere beside the street
With those homeless people hopeless and weak
Why people protest, to fight for things they deserve
Why is there still injustice between rich and poor
Men and women, black and white
These scenes were not in my dream
The dream of a great country
She smiled at me with stars in her eyes
And a kind of soft sorrow, then she replied
Oh dear friend, welcome to America
This is another heart-broken land