Poem by Miryam Haworth, Feature illustration by Catherine Meng
for Emma Gonzalez, 3/27/2018
She might be said to be beautiful were she not
Invisible — obscured behind that which she stands for, or
Naked in the best sense, seen by all in her purest form
Which is not and cannot be for seeing
She is not a girl — she is the reserve lights
Turning on.
Sometimes she glares at you from magazine covers
Under one-word pleas that are demands, that are helpless prayers
Whispered by godless teenagers under desks,
Sobs from little ones who don’t understand exactly what is happening
But still put their hands over their ears and say —
Enough.
Actually, that’s bullshit — they know exactly
What’s happening.
She might be said to be beautiful were she not
Iconic — her nose is always her nose, her movements always
Her movements, which trail behind them a revolution
Too unwieldy to be dragged by anything but some kind of
Machine.
She is not a machine. She is a sound echoing
Across a silent city, seventeen final gunshots aimed
To the sky,
She is Apollo’s child driving Apollo’s horses and it seems to me
She’s doing just fine, flying on her wood-and-duct-tape wings —
She is not Icarus.
She is not falling.
She is not a vanishing point —
She is not a controversial image —
She is not a reaction to violence
Or a tool in your campaign —
She is something more powerful than that.
She is a girl.
–
About the Poet
Miryam Haworth is a second year English major at the University of Guelph. She’s been writing poetry ever since fourth grade, and making up stories as long as she can remember. “Apollo’s Horses” is her tribute to Emma Gonzalez and March for Our Lives, and was inspired by a quote from Emma’s mother, Beth Gonzalez, who said of her daughter; “It’s like she built herself a pair of wings out of balsa wood and duct tape and jumped off a building. And we’re just, like, running along beneath her with a net, which she doesn’t want or think that she needs.”
About the Artist
From a young age, Catherine Meng has had a passion for drawing and creating artwork. Although she is now in her fourth and final year of a biomedical science, she continues to use her mind artistically and expand her imagination. She enjoys exploring new artistic styles and meanings in her work, inspired by perspectives that both solidify and challenge her own.