Student Work

From a SpeakTogether virtual workshop, University Heights High School, The Bronx, Fall 2020

This poem was composed during a six-week workshop conducted by poet Jubi Arriola-Headley, who introduced a class of 9th-grade students to myriad forms of poetry that exist. This workshop took place virtually during a global pandemic. Read more about the works in this collection, which demonstrates students’ efforts to find their voices and share them with their peers, teachers, and families.

Why

by Martha

Everything is different when you’re not around
I hate how you left me…
I Just stood there asking why
Why you left
What did i do
Was it my fault
What made you leave.
I hate you but i still miss you
Miss your touch
The idea of you
Your laugh
I miss the attention you gave me,
But life doesn’t revolve around you
You’re not my air
Or my purpose to live
So i must let you go
Like you did.

Martha is a student at University Heights High School in NYC. She is from The Bronx.