By Liliana Lopez, Clarion Sections Editor
i.
head throbbing, no pop in my ear,
Or iPhone in my hand,
sitting on the steps of the third floor.
We sit together, after hours, in
the C wing halls
because you don’t like books.
Beige tile meadows, sprinkled
Here and there
With wildflowers left by youth:
Doritos, Pepsi, lunch trays.
The brick sky overhead,
Gleaming with Edisonian sunshine.
We read the funnies,
Featured weekly on staircase rails
And bathroom stalls in Sharpie, we
Listen to rap in Cantonese and Korean,
We are these stairs, the footprints are my skin,
The foregone gum under the rail, my mouth
Among so many other insignificant
Dried-out sticks of gum
A high school hallway is
So many of us and
None of us at all.
ii.
maybe it was pop, or oldies,
Or a Samsung CRUSH_X565,
as we sat in a classroom devoid of class,
Sitting together, after hours, in
any hall, because you don’t like books, and you
finally read one.
Gray asphalt fields, sprinkled
Here and there
With dandelion wishes blown by youth:
An education, a love, a life.
A natural sky overhead,
Gleaming with cerulean gerontocracy and
an ozone layer quietly burning.
We read the news,
featured minutely on websites we’ve never heard of,
Users we’ve never seen (it’s all fake news anyway, I heard)
We are these stairs, the footprints are my skin,
but my mouth is no longer a
foregone gum under the rail, amidst
So many other chewed-up, spat-out, sticks of gum.
A high school hallway is
so many of us and
None of us at all.
Categories: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT