lhs-poems-2019 – Page 56 – "2:25 PM" – Poems from Lexington High School Class of 2018

Lior Amitay // THE BALLAD FOR A FALLING ANGEL

My my,
haven’t you all grown up?
Your sight shatters
Breaks,
Already broken.
Then eliminates.
Me.

I have known you better–
Brighter than a flame,
Lighter than air.
Should have known
To treat you better.

The moment to realize my mistake
It’s too late,
Too late.
Your soul,
Gone.

However,
Some ugly words
Seem to slice right through you
What I don’t get is,
why are you crying?
Your toxic words are no match.
But still,
you cry.
Fake tears,
That hurt others.

You are too dark to cry;
But too pure to understand.
Running through the night,
Never looking back.

You dazzle me over,
Careless.
I want to escape.
Forever,
From the demon
That I myself created.

As far as I know,
Happiness cannot be taken.

Only devoured away.

Kristina Wong // ODE TO MY EATING DISORDER

Tonight, Christmas evening,
Was the peak of our relationship.
Allow me to explain.

Before our family dinner,
I tried to wear my favorite dress—the black satin one,
That shines softly in light.

You tenderly called me a cow, and asked
‘Why don’t you cut away your fat?’
‘Can’t you carve your stomach flat?’

I trudged back into my room,
Your loving abuse clinging to my body all the way.

I changed into your favorite clothing for me—sweatpants,
And joined our parents and brother at the table.

At the sight of the steaming turkey and creamy potatoes,
You hissed kindly to me,
‘Touch it and you’ll regret it.’

Nobody else could hear the sweet-nothings you whispered,
But don’t worry, I did.
I swallowed your advice instead of my food.
And later I emptied my stomach of everything except your words.

Now thanks to you, my ribs are finally showing.
Our love truly goes to the bone.

Irene Zhang // MY RELATIONSHIP WITH WRITING THIS RELATIONSHIP POEM

“The poem is due Friday, this week.” The teacher announced on Tuesday.
“The topic of this poem is your relationship with anything.”
I, master procrastinator, scoffed and smugly thought,
“Hey, I still have four more days!”

Well, on Thursday, my Google™ doc still stared blankly at me.
“Shit,” I thought, “What do I write about?”

Should I write about the fig bars I constantly eat in class?
‘The sweet smell of the fig
The processed sugar
The soft whole wheat cover
It brought a tear to her eye as she gleefully devoured’
I carefully scrutinized the sample poem, the imagery was not vivid enough.
I frustratedly clenched my fists. The tears and glee didn’t go together
So I scrapped the draft, disappointed but already lured by new ideas
Grades? School? A serious poem?

Should I write about the severe lack of snow days this year?
‘A young girl
Sadly stared at the her computer
The 85{8f8d4e344c8a972b8e97d55fa7ec8be4d5f796681e06b247e4219849f812f758} chance on snow day calculator
Just went down to 50{8f8d4e344c8a972b8e97d55fa7ec8be4d5f796681e06b247e4219849f812f758}’
I carefully scrutinized the sample poem, not thrilled by the wording.
So I scrapped the idea, negativity starting to drip into my mind, panic lurking in the background
That was when I struck gold
Meta gold

“I’ve made up my mind!” I declared to my friend in the whimsical green dress writing her own
poem.
“I’ll write about my relationship with the process of writing a relationship poem.”

And so I wrote,
‘“The poem is due Friday, this week.” The teacher announced on Tuesday.’

Grace Zhang // GOLDFISH

Round, protruding eyes
Peering out at the world
Where she will never be
Able to brush her delicate fin upon.

Dragging her heavy, dress-like tail
To all the invisible barriers
That restricts her within her cell.
Her mouth opening and closing,
Uncertain of what to ask,
Maybe just curiosity and a million unanswered questions.

Light, darkness
Repeat
Waiting…

For food, water,
Or perhaps,
A purpose.

Alive, yet not living

Waiting…

Faye Lewis // PENCIL

Long and thin
Sharp on one end
But soft and forgiving on the other
Dull
Until sharpened like a blade
Always
Moving, scratching
Along a blank surface.
Filling the page with dark marks
That fade over time
Never permanent
But always powerful

Edward Nieshoff // SNAPPING TURTLE

The turtle crawls back
Into it’s hard shell,
Fish pass like bullets,
Day turns into night,
Night turns back to day,
Children’s feet sound like
thunder… on the floor,

Turtle knows some but not much
Of what’s happening above,
Back rigid like a mountain,
Head wrinkly like an old witch,
Teeth hang like a vampire,
Simply just misunderstood.

Anmianyao // CATS

I like cats
Regardless of their fur color
I listen out for the cautious footsteps
Or try to capture the unpredictable figures hiding in the dark
They peek into world in the gap of times
and draw footprints under the roof of cement
They stand by the gesture of independence
Without abandoning the ambitions of world

Cats are like me
Or I am like a cat
My heart deep inside yearns to escape the earth
But lack of courage to forgive and forget the world
Balance towards the world
People live with the absolute independence
Only see the endless sparks in the mirror
Secular people see the objects themselves only
And the others observe both
Cat and me
We enjoy the morning warm light
and cross through the charming night breeze

Nothing really matters in this world
As long as cat and me continue
Daydreaming by the groovy stove

Aditi K // ARMS

In school, I was told to write,
About a place close to my heart.
I started thinking for really long,
Going through options, not knowing where to start.

Should I write about my studio,
Where I sit and paint for hours?
Or my grandma’s garden,
Where I always stop to sniff the flowers?

It dawned upon me then,
To write about wherever I feel at home,
The place I return to when I’m lost,
Where I don’t need to wander or roam.

How can I find this place,
Is it far away through mountains or farms?
No, I don’t need to look that far,
My safe place is in your arms.

On the way to class, or in your basement,
My safe place is wherever you are,
You’re there for me without being told,
You don’t need a map or the north star.

Together in a comfortable silence,
I’m nuzzled against your chest,
I choose to revel in the happiness,
Because with you, I don’t feel second best.