Isn’t it strange how the numbers and lies

Oddly determine so much of our lives?

Acronyms seem to possess all our thoughts, 

Tying our lives into untidy knots.

 

Everyone tells us the next step is prep:

GPA, SAT, ACT, CLEP,

FAFSA and ASVAB and AP, IB.

All of these letters define you and me.

 

 Letters like these are all lethal and crazed,

Dreaming new deaths for the students in ways

No one anticipates, no one thinks true,

No one believes that it’s harmful for you.

 

Letters will drown us in alphabet soup,

Tying a noose in a treacherous loop,

Holding a gun to society’s head,

Stabbing a knife until progress is dead.

 

Standardized tests are the bane of our lives,

Cutting our value and worth in the eyes

Of those who hold power and those who do not,

 Those who would tie all our lives in a knot.

 

Everyone’s held to expected results,

Taught that it’s part of becoming adults.

All that is left and that matters to me

Is to get a good score on the SAT.

 

Don’t let these tests all but straighten you out,

Drown you in waves upon waves of self-doubt,

Ruin uniqueness and smother your charm,

Don’t let these tests slyly lead you to harm.