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Switch between Young Poets World publications:
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| Young Poets 16 to 18
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| Young Poets 12 and Under
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Visit Young Poets World
to explore all poetry submission opportunities for poets 18 years and under.
Young poets may also submit to the Weekly Poems Contest.
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September 15th, 2026
Young Poets 16 to 18 Contest #3 – First Place
by Shotha N. Munyai
I was raised by women who learned to swallow pain before they learned to rest. Love given tired, because tired was all they had. Silence was passed down like a family name. So was endurance. So was the quiet knowing that the world doesn’t notice when girls are breaking inside. At eleven, a poem was read out loud at school and something inside me shattered quietly. No one saw the cracks. No one asked why a girl could be so small and already so heavy. I learned words could hold what my body wasn’t allowed to carry. Paper wouldn’t question me. It wouldn’t flinch. It didn’t need me to apologize for the weight I carried in my chest. I became small by design. Observant. Quiet enough to disappear. Strong enough for people to admire because it cost them nothing. Writing didn’t heal me. It held me in place when no one else could, when no one else tried, when no one else even noticed that I was coming apart one silent breath at a time. I am seventeen and fluent in survival. Already carrying generations of women who never got to fall, who never got to be soft, who never got to rest. The dark didn’t break me. It trained me. It sharpened me to the edges of my own endurance. To the places where pain is a language and silence is a shield. I am a girl who learned early that nobody will see you unless you make yourself small enough to fit. I am a girl who learned that love can be given quietly, endlessly, even when the world refuses to notice. And the hardest truth is this— I didn’t grow up too fast. I was just never allowed to be a child.
About the Poet
Shotha N. Munyai resides in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
Read the poet's biography and Young Poets World publications
on Shotha N. Munyai's Artist Page.
Young Poets Collection
This poem is also featured in
Young Poets Collection #3,
published in the Young Poets World Library.
Previously published in Young Poets 16 to 18:
How the Sea Got Waves
by S. Vats
Young Poets 16 to 18 is part of Young Poets World and waxpoetryart.com.
- Visit the Young Poets World Submissions page to see all opportunities.
- Visit the Young Poets World Library.
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