San Diego teen Maya Salameh, 16, read a poem at the White House Thursday. The San Diego High School junior is one of five students across the country named a 2016 National Student Poet.
Salameh will spend the year sharing her poetry as part of the 5-year-old program launched by the Obama administration.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Salameh said her work is inspired by her identity as an Arab American — her parents are Lebanese American — and current events.
Here's her poem, "sacrilege incorporated."
i speak to you
terrorists, skyjackers, lifejackers
and otherwise-flavored peddlers
of sacred hearsay
i speak to you
just fyi
just for your illumination
god is not
a mcdonald’s franchise
you don’t hold any right to sell, market, or
otherwise operate in his name
i speak to you
for now is the time
to open your eyes
to close your pocketbooks
no prophets have ever had
swiss bank accounts
i speak to you
for if you love god
you would not lie
in his name
you would not kill
in his name
you would not explode
in his name
i speak to you
for the only god you seem to know
is the god of destruction
always thirsty
for more blood, more tears,
more futures gone wrong
i speak to you
for children
belong to no creed
and if holiness exists
it is the selflessness that runs in their
veins
i speak to you
for the magnetic attraction of violence
keep no home
in the nonpolar
hearts of the young
i speak to you
for senseless violence
has no part
in my definition of humanity
i speak to you
because blind faith
is no faith
