From this good roundup of statements and art created by US teenagers in response to the pandemic, we discovered “okay” by Brooklyn's Suhaylah Sirajul-Islam, age 15. An excerpt:
What’s it like, being a teenager in quarantine?
it’s the same i guess.
except time passes more slowly.
and you’re not allowed to go outside.
it’s feeling exhausted from all the schoolwork.
and touch-starved because your friends aren’t there.
suddenly, the two-bedroom apartment you share with five family members,
finally begins to feel cramped.
it’s feeling terrified, because you share a room
with your covid-positive aunt, who refuses to see a doctor.
and you can hear your dad, coughing through the walls.
and your mom at 2 a.m., reciting qur’an and
rushing to make tea for the both of them.
she gets sick too.
The full poem is available as a pdf.