Seventeen

seventeen –

used to paint my thoughts yellow

with happiness and innocence

waves crashing against the sand,

teenagers laughing

as water sweeps their friends off their feet

idealized love and stolen kisses

naivety and idealism and ambition and potential

the urge to be someone

to do something…

seventeen –

doesn’t paint my thoughts anymore

isn’t deserving of any color

brings with it the sorrow

of seventeen lives ripped away;

bullets ricocheting in hallways,

teenagers screaming

as hot metal kills their friends in front of their faces

scars, both mental and physical

no idea which one hurts more.

but now we can be someone,

do something.

we won’t stop at anything

we will not be trivialized,

we have the attention on us:

we have the power now.

About the Poet

Aarohi Talati, 16, is a junior at American Heritage. Her academic interests include computer science and medicine. Although she is very studious, she always makes time for her hobbies. One of her greatest passions is writing— she writes often in her free time, ranging from short poetry to short stories to chapters out of a novel. Singing and dancing are also both things she enjoys, and she is almost done with both the Bharatnatyam curriculum and Hindustani classical music curriculum.