My name is Mackenzie, I’m 16 years-old and I attend Woodstock Collegiate Institute in Woodstock, Ontario.
My favourite subject is Social Sciences and I love swimming on my city’s swim team! I wanted to get into this program because I feel that your hearing is very important. Below is a poem about my friend who has hearing loss and although there was no way he could have prevented it, YOU can by turning down your music! Remember, “Listen Now, to Listen Later.”
A Boy No Different
Just a babe with meningitis to fight
Hoping he’d live and grow to be a man
Doctors and nurses worked into the night
Telling his parents, “There’s no other plan.”
If he wakes up he may not see or hear
But his little eyes opened and he saw
A silent world was now the only fear
And would everyone see it as a flaw?
Struggles came with this new way of living
Cochlear Implants brought sound to his ears
Past a sickness that was unforgiving
Through minutes and hours, days, months and years
A boy not different in any way
For he’s at my door asking, “Come and play?”





nice poem MacKenzie!
Mackenzie, you are a true artist with words.
I never knew you could write such nice poetry.
inspiring.