social commentary – Page 2 – "2:25 PM" – Poems from Lexington High School Class of 2018

Anubhab Das // REGRET

As the man drank the soda, he felt the sting of regret, And began to realize the repercussions of his actions. Slowly, the tears began to wash down his face. Then came the consequences of his transgression.
His sensei came into the fray. His sensei’s presence was like a raging bull. The man got on his knees and bowed in desperation. The slew of emotions made him want to die.
As he begged for forgiveness, His sensei smiled. Then proceeded to pull out a sword. The man became saturated in fear. But he was not given the time to utter a word.
Then he felt the sting of regret.
Author’s note: This poem was originally titled “Soda” because it originally was an apology poem in which somebody drinks someone else’s soda and apologizes about how they were wrong for doing so. The people who read it described how it was very vague and in general it was just difficult to understand what the poem was trying to portray and who was speaking in addition to what was going on within the poem. This made me change the story within the poem such that it was more specific an easier to tell what it was actually referring to with a man drinking a soda and then getting cut down by his sensei for whatever reason. Since the actual poem got more specific I changed the title to something a bit more vague like “Regret” and I felt it fit the new one better that was less centered around soda. Additionally, during revision I added a line break in the last stanza between “As he begged for forgiveness” and “His sensei smiled” in order to dramatize the second line and highlight the tonal shift from that point onward in the poem to a darker, more serious tone. Furthermore, I used consonance (His sensei’s presence) to establish how foreboding and intimidating the sensei’s presence is. The reason for why the sensei kills the man and the man feels regret is left ambiguous as it is not directly relevant to the theme of the poem. The poem is suppose to express how the consequences of a person’s action will always catch up to them and they will receive retribution accordingly. This new theme was really surprising to me as before with “Soda” the tone and theme were relatively light hearted, so this change to a darker tone was surprise to me. In terms of what I like about the poem, I really like how at the end I repeated part of the first line and made it pack that extra punch in the final line of the stanza and properly end the poem.

Erin Cullinan // THAT OTHER GIRL

I stare at the Girl that lives inside the mirror.
She always follows my lead,
She never strays from my command.
The reflective glass inside my room holds Her prisoner.
She does not complain, for She cannot.

I control what She says, when She moves, and how She looks.
She controls how I feel about myself: She feeds on my insecurities.
Our relationship is symbiotic in most ways:
She cannot exist without me
And without Her what would I be?

I cannot exist without Her and without me what would She be? Our relationship is symbiotic in most ways: I control how she feels about Herself: I feed on Her insecurities. She controls what I say, when I move, and how I look.

But I do not complain, for I cannot. I am a prisoner of the reflective glass in Her room. I never stray from what She says. I always follow Her lead. I forever stare at the Girl who lives outside of the mirror.

Amy Finkelman // BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

Before you were born, you were the thought of fear about the future. Before you were born, you were a
mistake, an accident, and now a problem. Before you were born, your parents were working on a farm,
picking vegetables, and growing rice. You were living on a farm, hours outside of the city, up on a
mountain, in a tiny village. Before you were born, your parents worried about providing food for
themselves. You were a pea-sized fetus, undernourished, and under-developed growing each day.
Before you were born, you were the joy that brought a smile to your mother’s face, but tears, to your
fathers eyes. Before you were born, you were the fear of not getting the future you deserve. You were the
thought that your parents could not provide a life for you. Before you were born, you were the thought that
living somewhere else, becoming a new person, and having new parents would be the best option. The
only option.

Lina Jaafar // “SCARED FOR THE FUTURE”, A CONVERSATION WITH MY ANXIETY

“Scared for the Future”, a Conversation With my Anxiety By: Lina Jaafar One day It is small, a star in the night sky. One day It is the night sky, swallowing me whole, Turning my vision dark, my senses off-
I cry.
Cry out for help, but not aloud, I go limp. Maybe if I sleep the night will pass, But I keep it alive, like a drug, it consumes me!
Some days my friends light candles, I think the night is gone, but it’s still there, Sharp, cold, biting–welcome.
I hide,
Hide from all the candles so as to not be fooled, Lock myself in a dark room and the shivering stopsSeeing every miniscule light behind the window.
I turn, breathe a sigh of relief, close my eyes, Thinking the light is gone until I realizeMy friends-they’ve broken my windows, They’ve let the light in!
Mend the barrier, scared of the breeze, Of the silence that follows, Not at ease.
Running out the door, my friends at the party, “Why don’t you have fun?” It’s not that simple, you see!
It’s not that fun having fun When your body doesn’t want to have fun! Don’t you see?! Stop following me!

I try.
Try to let go, but of what? I’m not holding on, It’s holding on, that pest I can never escape-
Even in my sleep, when I wake, My most loyal friend, Always there to greet me-
Carry It with me like a dog on a leash, But who’s on the leashIs It or is It me?!
My friends, they say, “See the colors around you? Their glorious beauty spins about you!” “No”, I reply.
I am colorblind-
I see black, I see white, I see division, I see It.
“Are you scared of the darkness?” “No, friends, I am scared of the light.”

Tayin D. // A WINDING RIVER

Let them be as hard as stones
Always sturdy, standing tall
But still, and forever cold

I’d rather be a long river
Passive, with clear streams, like shiny ribbons
blowing in the wind
Rapids rushing towards the deep open sea

To have no control, following the path that has already been decided To relax, to just enjoy the ride
To be pushed and pulled by moon and sun
Or to be crashing over rocks, swirling tumbling in a panic

I’d rather be unbothered, and if
Then I am alone
Than to be around still and unfeeling stones
Where they are praised for their rigidity
By those who just watch

I’d rather let everything flow
Than attempt to find footing in the water
If I could carry out my path freely
I’d Rather be a long winding river

Aylin Bruce // SEVEN-YEAR OLD

Surrounding me are the monsters
The ones that pinch my cheeks
That dig their nails in
Leaving stained crimson on my face
Oblivious to the hot flush of my embarrassment Masked with obnoxious grins
They pose the grim question:
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
After an unsettling pause
My tongue pierces the toxic air
“Everything.”
Discordant cackles suffocate me
Roaring louder and louder
Escalating like a symphony
Soon they resume their cryptic conversations
While I sit lonely and stare at my feet
Dangling above the floor
Wondering where Mommy is
Why do they think of me as a fool for my absence of grey hair When we can simply all dance together?
Your scorns
Will dwindle into ashes
For the future belongs to me

Hannah E. // FUNERALS

Funerals
I’ve decided
Are for the living.

When someone dies
They pass the pain in their life onto the people left behind.
And when you lose someone you love,
Every little task
Is energy draining
and life sucking.

It’s a war to think,
And a battle to feel.
And reality comes in little waves
And fully submerge you and you’ll drown.
And the harder you fight,
The harder it is to breathe and to think and to just
Be.

And then every little memory builds up until they all crash and suddenly
There is a hole in the shape of them in your heart.
Your world goes colorless
All emotions and feelings are stripped from your everyday life.

The sound of their name
Rolling off of someone’s tongue
Puts a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes
but you smile,
And pretend everything is all right.
Because everything is.

You only grieve when there is nobody to see you at your most vulnerable,
To see you heave and shake
Until your knees buckle and everything blurs
And you have to focus on
In…. and out
In… and out
Because suddenly,
It has became in out in out in out and the room is shaking
And the world is spinning
And it hits you

Like the ground does when you walk down the stairs
Missing the last step,
That this was how they felt.
Because before you lost them,
They lost themselves.

And all of your unused love for them disintegrates into grief and hate
Hate for not doing anything when it crossed your mind
Hate for not reminding them that they were so loved
Hate
For not saving their life
Because you were too blind to see they were drowning.

Grief is the price we must all pay for love
We need to have both to truly appreciate love
And truly feel grief,
Because I think deep down
Grief is just expired love.

So we take all of our expired love,
Dress like death,
And prove that we will love again
With each shiny teardrop
That streams down our trembling cheeks
Every time someone we love falls
Like a leaf from on orange oak tree
On a brisk October morning.

Alexander Peng // PENGUINKIND

Resident of the barren, white plains
Huangdi of the Spheniscidae s trains
Custodian of the southern winter fringes,
An emperor.

Noble tuxedoed avian of the winterland
Flightless, ungainly as if completely unplanned
A torpedo in the water
Yet disregarded by the augur
Braving through the frozen bath of white
And marching through the night
Facing the eternal fury of the Antarctic plateau.
Alone to inhabit their frozen chateau.

Wishing not anything sweet to eat
No need for others to greet
Content with their uncontested reign
Humble rulers of an empty domain.