Children of a New Generation

We are the children of a new generation

Growing effortlessly like flowers in a meadow

They teach us things like right and wrong

Left and right

Yes and no

But they refuse to teach us what we want to know

If we become too loud

They silence us

If we become too active

They chain us down

There is no more right to speak

What happened to our nation?

We once gathered under the right to assemble and speak out

But now we are shut down, kicked out, forced to stay quiet

Schools teach us compliance as 

They rip pages from our books

Rip chunks out of history

We try to stand up but they tell us to sit down

If I want my education, I must stay silent.

In this system, they teach us that the only things to exist are dichotomies

Right and wrong, left and right, yes and no

They tell us that we can either

Stand up and be punished

Or sit down and receive an education.

They say other nations don’t get this education

So we should consider ourselves lucky

Lucky?

Lucky for my rights to be stripped from my red white and blue skin.

We were formed under a flag 

With the right to speech, press, assembly, and to petition against our government

And against the systems that hold us hostage

But this education system is taking over

They paint over our red white and blue stripes

To leave a blank canvas

Allowing them to paint on whatever pictures they want

They chain us up to a circle of what we can and can’t say

And throw away the key

Leaving us helpless

And weak with no power to stop them

We are the children of a new generation

Wilting flowers in a dying meadow 

The pesticides they spray leave us paralyzed and wilted 

We are your new generation.