This poem was inspired by the riots that took place in March 2020. Watching them on the news and hearing how outraged my conservative father was at the idea that police could be corrupt. Seeing everyone's reactions kept bringing me back over and over again to David Haug, Emma Gonzales, and Greta Thunberg. Like the Black Lives Matter movement, my father was (and still is) extremely dismissive of the new voices born into this world kicking and screaming.

This poem came from a place of rage, originally a three page, an angry manifesto written in rhyme and verse. I am thankful to have never experienced discrimination based on my race, but I have seen time and time again the dismissive attitudes of people like my father. I want people to finally understand that the time of age equalling respect and age equalling wisdom is over because the children that are going to inherit the Earth are tired of it. 

This poem is the best I've ever written, and the only one I've ever revised. I find that my peers are intimidated by my work, and they have told me that verbatim many times. Peer analysis does nothing for me because the rough draft is intimidating enough to subdue criticism. For once I successfully revised a poem into something better than it started off as, and I want to show the pride I feel from this poem.