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Friday, April 13, 2018

Scholastic Spotlight: Athalia Haghton


Uncomfortable

Silver Key


Author: Athalia Haghton
8th Grade
Educator: David St. Peter
Bismarck


I like to talk about things that make people uncomfortable.
Like endangered species and our corrupt government,
How we’re killing our planet and all anyone seems to care about is money,
I ask: how can one person be worth so much when so many people have so little?
Not so many people like to talk with me,
People think I’m a downer; always being so gloomy.
See I like to talk about slave trades still going on in our world,
How refugees are trying to get away from war zones,
About how we close our minds and our borders to them,
How we trade so many lives for our own feeble idea of safety.
Maybe we could be more helpful if we redefined ourselves,
What if instead of sitting on a couch or looking at a screen our idea of fun was to help?
To put our efforts towards dying things,
Not just people, but everything?
Dying people, dying breeds, dying plants, dying ideas of love and compassion.
Our dying planet.
The more I talk the deeper I like to go,
Like peeling the layers of an onion,
The further I go the worse it smells,
The more you start to cry.
Not because I’m a downer,
But because I’m only 13,
My next few years of life will swamped and busy,
All about me and those few around me.
I like to talk about all this because it’s the least I could do,
Five minutes where my life isn’t all me,
Five minutes given to those who have so few,
Five minutes to inspire someone else.
Because I keep hoping,
Hoping that if I talk about it,
If we talk about it maybe, just maybe, we can change it,
If we can change it maybe, just maybe, we will.
Yes, I like to talk about things that make people uncomfortable.

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