Look!

High School.

Yes, High School.
You trip and fall
And don’t get up

And you’re covered in blood
And depressed and crying
Lying on the floor
Dying

Where young love lifts you
And then throws you down

Come, look, there’s someone
Lying on the floor crying,
Kick him, beat him,
Tease him, hurt him

Your voice is lost
In a chorus of jeers
And a black shade
Covers the faces of your peers

And those friends
Those people dear
To you

Are nowhere to be seen
Thrown into a pit
Of depression, too

Almost like your virtue
Dug that pit for you

Don’t retaliate,
Because their ignorance
Has dug a pit for them

Their bad deeds,
Seeds that they planted
Sprout in flames
They planted these deeds

These seeds of flame
In this pit they’ve
Dug for themselves

Some call it hell,
I call it retribution

Retribution for
Their grave errors

Forgetting that god is there,
Watching, everywhere,

And all these poems
About teenage angst
They’re lame
But all the same

I need an outlet.

So I laugh at them
As they laugh at me
For I know
What they do to me

And all the pain
They inflict on me

In this hell of a place
Called High School

Will someday come around
And hit them
When they don’t expect it

I will look and see
Where they’ll be
When that day
Comes around

When there is no shade,
When they can’t hide
Behind their money
Or pride
Or arrogance
Or hubris

Because that’s all they have.

I don’t know where I’ll be
No, for I too have sinned

Many sins for which I can no longer repent

I can only pray
To live long enough
To make it up to my creator

Look!
Look at me!
I can write poetry!

I want to write
For the right reasons

I don’t want their
Eyes on me

Or to be trapped
In my own vanity
In this hell of a place
Called High School

So I turn to my faith
And wipe that blood off my face

And stand up and laugh
At that faceless crowd

Of people who fall into conformity
Insecure and lost

Because I know
That if I put my trust in god

I won’t be lost
I’ll be confident
And smile at life

And stride on to my salvation
As I serve my sentence
On our earthly prison
I’ll look straight ahead
Look away from the distractions
And pains and tribulations

I’ll try
Not to be
Too metaphorical
Or allegorical

But understand

As I reel
In the depths of insanity
In this hell of a place
Called High School

If I know anything
I know this

These bad deeds
Are seeds they’ve planted
In the pit they’ve dug
With their ignorance

Seeds that sprout into flames
In the hell they’ve earned themselves

If they don’t look back now
And wake up
And stand up
And say

I will change
Sincerely,
I will change.

Look!

There are a billion and a half people

Standing up,
And saying with their chorus of voices
That drowns out the din
Behind them

In their hundreds of tongues
And dialects

“I am nothing
I deserve nothing
In front of my creator

And this pain
And misfortune
That’s befallen me

In this hell of a place
Called reality

Is just a test,
A test for a bail
Out of this earthly prison

As we make our way
Upwards or Downwards

To our fate
Looming in front of us!”

It’s our own choice
A test
With multiple choice questions
With only two options –

A or B

Right or wrong

Forgiveness or Retribution.