You trapped me here, took my family from me
The trauma I live is made from torture
I begged to leave, but I’m a savage you see
No sleep or food, you took my sanity
Clean up this mess, clean up this culture
You trapped me here, took my family from me
You cut my braids, with it went my humanity
You stripped my innocence, you are a vulture
I begged to leave, but I’m a savage you see
There’s no escape, I’m left with inanity
I work, I work, for just your agriculture
You trapped me here, took my family from me
Is this what’s god? Is this Christianity?
“Nothing ever happened” said the reporter
I begged to leave, but I’m a savage you see
My culture is no crime again humanity
You are no priest, you show no nurture
You trapped me here, took my family from me
I begged to leave, but I’m a savage you see.
Valarie Crockett
Grade: 11 / Sec. V
Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts
Abbotsford, BC
“This poem is a villanelle about residential schools and it’s written in the perspective of a student from a school at the time. ”
Bio
Valarie Crockett is a Grade 11 student and young poet from Abbotsford, British Columbia. She writes raw, emotional poetry that invites readers to feel her experiences as if they were their own. Her work focuses on connection, vulnerability, and the power of honest storytelling.