Smile because you've lived

Tear because you weren't yet ready to go

Fear because you see the gun

Truth is, you're about to die

And so the story goes.

Unless we actually have to use math?

The walls that once crowded, fall away from the horizon.

Once death-defying sky scrapers, up high in the clouds,

Now normal two-story buildings, too vanilla for any shock.

A jail, restrictive and binding,

No one could want to leave more than me.

Thirteen years spent in a prison

Toiling away at subjects I didn’t care about,

Ever meet APUSH? It’s called death.

Ever meet Physics? It’s called death.

Ever meet Calculus? It’s called death.

It’s called death, death, death, death, death, death,

And maybe some boredom.

But it’s really called life and youth and childhood.

But the clock kept ticking and I kept checking the time as it went 5, 4, 3, 2, school’s out, we’re done,

When really I should’ve been looking around and making memories and connecting and talking and laughing and experiencing what it means to be a human and a student still in high school.

Because no one really knows what it’s like to miss high school

Until the stage is set and the curtain rises and you’re up to take the final bow amongst strangers you can barely even call friends.

Happy Graduation.

I’ve tried the band aids

I’ve tried the ice cream

Can’t you just stay?

For nothing could ever patch this hole in my heart

Where you used to stay.

The edges are jagged,

The wound runs deep,

Will you please stay?

It shows everyone the space I entrusted to you

In my cold, guarded heart.

The world has slowed,

Colors have dulled,

I’m begging you—please stay?

Everywhere I go I’m reminded by you

I just can’t catch a break.

The frost from Mt. Everest has taken residence

Upon my heart, my eyes, my face.

For even though I know I shouldn’t,

I still miss you every day.

Don’t worry, I’ll survive.

I've made it out this far alone.

I will heal, stronger than before,

Just know—you’ve left a scar upon my heart.

Man’s emotions unbound,

Leaping to the page or off.

An unbreakable shield in times of sorrow,

A power up when extra courage is needed.

The most universal language that was ever found—or created.

Leaving an insatiable thirst for more,

Art is and will forever be

Food for the soul.