A Poem by ChanelAF

written: July 6, 2026

If This World Were Mine

If this world were mine
You would be free

Free to listen to music as loud as you desire

Free to play with your toys in the park

Free to wear a hoodie the way it’s meant to be worn

Free to tell a friend where to find some beautiful “maypops”

Free to take a summer boat ride with friends

Free to rest in your own bed

If this world were mine
I wouldn’t have to explain why your skin color makes you different
Why you can’t be in certain cities after dark
Or why you have to work “twice as hard”

If this world were mine
Your humanity would not be invisible
Your gentleness would not be dismissed
Nor your innocence, ignored

If this world were mine
You would be free

Free to exhale

Free to take up space

Free to exist in the fullest, truest,
most beautiful expression
of who you are

Author's Note

I wrote this in the middle of the night, steeping in the kind of rage that has nowhere to go except onto a page.

I wasn't trying to write a poem. I was just trying to survive my emotions in that moment. I kept thinking about Nolan Wells — 18 years old, on a boat with friends, doing something as ordinary and joyful as being young in the summer — and I couldn't get past how ordinary it was. That's what broke me down. Not the extraordinary tragedy of it, but how normal the moment was supposed to be.

There are many small freedoms that every human being has a right to. Things that shouldn't require permission, and yet, that is the kind of world we live in. If this poem made you uncomfortable, sit in that. Don't rush past it. The discomfort is the doorway to understanding and a brighter future.

I'm still praying for Nolan Wells' family tonight. I hope you will too.