“The Other Side” comes from Gold Medalist Alexandra Sukin, ninth grader from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Bustling streets
Car horns blaring with drivers ensnared in the morning rush
Packed elevators brimming with hope and nerves
We used to live four blocks away.
We could see it from our picture window.
See the cement grave he so rightly
Never expected.
We moved a month after the funeral
And have spent our days together
Trying to forget
What should not be forgotten.

The television flickers to life
As George settles in his worn armchair.
I move quickly,
Rushing upstairs to the comforts
Of my bed.
I can still hear what I wish I could not.
Those thieves
Who robbed me of my posterity.
Three grandchildren,
I wished for.
I no longer have even my own child.
And the reminder
Of my demise,
May soon be visible
From the window
Of the place a different but similar woman
Used to live.

A beautiful vision it is.
A little part of my father’s home
In our cement backyard.
Something to speak to people
That not all of us
Orchestrate death and horror.
We are a peaceful people,
I assure you.
I tell my friends,
“Don’t judge the many
by the actions of a few”
I believe in my faith,
The clarity, the beauty,
It presents me.
This mosque that will rise
Like the hope in my heart,
I know
Will shine light on the better
In all of us.