You press 
the idea of safety
But how can we feel safe
When we are forced to gamble?

For the sake of an A
We force our ideas to correlate
With your rubric
And when we agitate the curriculum
Or raise questions that expand the topic
We face the risk of a lower GPA
So we keep quiet and nod our heads
Telling ourselves our authentic voices
Can wait until college

We’ve dutifully sat in your chairs
As the tears hit our books
Staining the fine print
Hearing them echo
Throughout the rather quiet class
Do you realize that this is our call for help?
That we don’t understand
How you expect us
To read in between the lines
When we have yet to learn
How to simply read them first