“Sixteen” by Gabrielle Lattery is a poem about the author’s experience in a car crash and her opinion about young teens being allowed to drive. The author strongly believes that 16 is too young of an age for people to be trusted with their own lives and the lives of others in a car. The poem beautifully executes the author’s opinion on the topic and smoothly moves on to talk about Gabrielle’s personal experience.

Lattery mentions ways that prove that sixteen-year-olds are too young to be trusted with “machines that end 1.3 million lives every year.” She reminds readers that these young adults still sit in school and have to raise their hand to be allowed to use the bathroom, but somehow society has decided they are mature enough to drive. Gabrielle relates to her readers by saying that they all think nothing will happen to them, personally. Unfortunately, the author believed the same, but still remembers the shattered glass she saw in her crash. I agree with the author when she says that sixteen is too young to trust someone with such a responsibility. Gabrielle Lattery does an amazing job capturing people’s attention with her vivid details of her own experiences and straightforward, but important, last line.