Youth Poet Ambassador of Allegheny County 2021-2022

Shivani Watson is a senior at Allderdice High School. She founded the environmental sustainability club at her school and has participated in environmental activism. Shivani has participated in the Creative Expressions Program at Carnegie Mellon University where she composed and performed music. She was an editor for her school’s literary magazine where her poems have been published.

Howl
by Shivani Watson

I am haunted by a girl who walked on
air. Even flower fields are filled with bombs
Like comets which fall from the sky towards
Our house waltzes across a mountainous
Ballroom. Our partner is already aflame.

My heart is a fire, living outside my body.
He cooks with me but all I taste are the
Ashes. Our family is woven together by
contracts and curses. It will unravel
once shooting stars return to the sky.