About the Young Writers Project
YWP, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, Vermont, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power and to gain confidence and skills for the workplace and life. YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org, which has only one rule: Be respectful. For more information, please contact YWP executive director Geoffrey Gevalt at ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org.
Alexandra Contreras-Montesano, 16, a sophomore at Burlington High School, writes in response to President Trump’s Jan. 27 ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim countries.
Parts of War
(In response to the “Muslim ban”)
By Alexandra Contreras-Montesano
i. Fear
1492
Finding people surprised them.
Spanish ships and the promise of gold had brought them here.
“They don’t look like us,”
their guns whispered as they spit bullets.
“They don’t act like us,”
their blood sang as it rushed to their heads.
ii. Hate
2001
He could still smell the smoke and fire
when he turned on the news.
ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACK
“They don’t look like us.”
“They don’t act like us,”
the television whispered.
“I hate you!” his son yelled at a random girl in a hijab the next day.
iii. Isolation
2017
The scratch of the president’s pen tore into 218 million lives.
The air whistled inside planes as they turned back.
“They don’t look like us.”
“They don’t act like us.”
“I hate you!”
whispered the airport speakers.
A selfish orange man goes onstage
“Us before them,” he rages.
iv. Anger
2012
The sound of burning Qur’ans filled the sky.
The American soldiers curled their fists and threw more books in.
A fire raged, ignited by their hate.
Afghanis demanded justice, the soldiers demanded that this was revenge.
“They don’t look like us.”
“They don’t act like us.”
“I hate you!”
“Us before them,”
their fires whispered.
“Our temper is your fault,”
the newspaper stated.
v. Loss
2016
Bombs are the paintbrush
and Syria is the canvas of choice.
Soot and blood is a terrifying paint.
“They don’t look like us.”
“They don’t act like us.”
“I hate you!”
“Us before them.”
“Our temper is your fault,”
the tears upon the children’s cheeks whisper.
“Are we equal now?”
the mother asks as she meets them after shrapnel breaks her heart.
“Are we equal now?”
the little boy yells at the bomb as his mother’s eyes close.
Check out the January issue of The Voice, the Young Writers Project monthly digital magazine. Click here.