‘Price Tag’ by Zara, age 15, Wycombe High School

The roses are dead,
The thorns no longer prick,
The red is blue,
The tale is no longer a blessing of time,

The light at the end of the tunnel,
Was just a myth,
Forever unproven,
And unbelievable,
For we couldn’t bear,
Accept,
The reality
The shifting of a world,
We didn’t get a chance to know,

Our world evolves,
Black is white,
Freedom is not so simple,
A flower is no longer love,
Just the materialist things
We speak,
Every day
Can our words,
Really change the way our world works?

To live,
We lie,
To make our heart beat,
We deceit,
It’s no longer wrong,
It’s a lifestyle,
Accepted by all
Forgiven by none

Brainwashed,
By everything that does not matter,
Our lifetime is consumed,
Generationally passing,
Power is misused,
As a limit is no longer necessary,
We accept and say not enough,
We provoke and drain,
The righteous,
While the left,
Leave us with shadows,
Unknown until the sun shines a light
On what’s left,

As we,
In our pure form,
Are non-existent,
Lifeless is the new trend,
Upbeat is not the tune,
Aesthetic – is what we worship,
Everything else,
Is senseless,
In a world,
We will not care for,

A world hard to live in,
Is a world that has already been sold
For too high a price