Poetry Slam Poem - "Fourteen"

Today was the first round of the Poetry Slam at my school. I wrote this poem within an hour or so, and presented it in my Creative Writing class. I ended up as one of the five people with the most votes!!! Read my poem below :3

I was 14 when Roe versus Wade was overturned.

“What are you gonna do about it?” my mom says. “You’re only one person.”

I can’t say what I want to say, I only leave to blast my music.

It was June 24, 2022 when I woke up and looked at the TV, set to the news.

Abortion rights set back decades, up for the states to choose.

I cried for hours, the thought of this day had been looming over me for months on end.

I felt hopeless, this battle will never end.

I can easily say this event changed the course of my life.

The news spread fast through the country, causing major strife.

To this day I can’t express what this makes me feel,

The cruel hands of men in positions of power have wielded me and shaped me into a razor-sharp blade.

I was 14 when I was radicalized.

I thought of all the women, all the girls, who’s lives would be destroyed from the inside out.

Watching the protests outside of the Supreme Court changed me.

It got in my head, and set my mind free.

These women and girls, screaming and rioting, inspired me to do the same.

The men in the Supreme Court will never understand,

That to them, we are just wombs, standing in front of a cult of fascists, asking for the same rights as a corpse.

I was 14 when I started calling myself a feminist.

I was 14 when I became the woman I needed when I was a little girl.

I was in 8th grade, and while in class, the guy in front of me made a mockery of the 97%.

“No means no,” he said, his friends laughing.

I think of that to this day, of all the things I should have done or said.

I should have stood up, and punched him in the head.

I’m almost 16 now, infected with the Grrrl Virus.

I spread this virus, spreading the words of Kathleen Hanna and Joan Jett and Greta Thunberg.

I live in a world where rape jokes are never funny.

I live in a world where sexism makes me angry instead of ticked off.

And if I could be with my younger self, I would tell her to take a stand,

The fact of the matter is that it’s not up to them, but it is up to me.

I’m almost 16 now, with nothing but a few cents, a guitar, and pink ladder-laced Doc Martens, earned by activism and anger.

There is nothing I wouldn’t do to lift up other women, to amplify their voices, and to castrate the patriarchy. 

Do not be afraid to stand up for yourself,

Do not be afraid to oppose those who stand against you, 

Because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.