by Claire Wang, Oak Valley Middle School '26

Winter

Cuts through the lives of the unborn

Cold silver knives twisting the fate of

Those like ice in the clouds.

When blizzards force young girls down

Blinding them and tell them to ignore

The bloody knife

As it slices them over and over and over

Again

Blood dripping in the snow.

Winter

Tells the young girls that they

Are worthless

That their bodies are for sex and

Reproduction only

Yet to exist is a sin.

That women are unclean

Like the trampled snow on the

Floor as their humanity

Is shred off with a cut

By their mother’s hands.

Winter

Bleeds the young girls

Again and again and again.

Stealing their identity

Away in cold red

Shards as they are

Broken again and again

So they can be as pure

As the snow falling softly

Onto innocent faces.

Autumn

Was as dark red as the fury

Father showed when he learned

The child Mother carried

Had two X chromosomes.

Autumn

Breezes cut through warm lands,

Leaves falling to the ground

From its mother tree

In shades of red and 

Gold like the innocent girls

Thrown away like

Garbage in the streets

Because their parents took a

Gamble and decided

To leave their prize

Because they were 

Girls instead of

Boys.

Spring

Is the sound of gates

Every year at school

Filtering out the boys from

The girls at home

Cooking and cleaning

The floor with salty

Rain puddles.

Spring

Strips away the girls future

With a soft breeze

Away into the clouds

Because they “aren’t

Good enough”

Spring

Fills the girls heads with

Lies that their only

Role is to bear sons

And watch bitterly as

They take the life stolen

Away from them

By Chance.

Summer

Comes fast with a vengeance.

A blazing passion like the

Wildfires that dance

Unasked for and 

Uncontrolled.

Striking girls down

With tongues of insatiable flame

One by one

Like bowling pins.

Summer

Treats the girls like a game.

Telling them they are only for the

Pleasure of men

Dehumanizing them in

Shrieks of red fire like they

Are objects rather than

Human.

Summer

Shines bright and golden

Like stars above.

Yet the shrieks of the girls

On the ground are

Forever ignored leaving them

Helpless as they are

Burned alive.