I feel vagrant
Passing through this world on my way to nowhere
Of the world, but not in it

I feel invisible
Passing through busses, trains, hallways
Yelling out ideas and opinions
But nobody hears them
My stories echo through the crowded halls
Mixing with the cacophony of nothingness

I feel empty
Devoid of anything but ache and stress
I’ve given all I had already
Yet my life is just beginning
So I pick up the scraps left behind
Hoping to salvage enough to make a whole feeling
But the pieces don’t fit
So I leave them where they were

I feel like I was born of the Earth
But I’m not here
And I’m not sure if I ever will again

Science says
“You need 9 or more hours of sleep a night
To stay healthy,
Refreshed,
Happy,
And acute”

School says
“**** it! Start at 8:00 AM!
Run for 7 hours!
Give ‘em another 3 hours of homework a class!
They can take it!
Who needs sleep?
Who needs friends?”

We say
“**** it! Who needs sleep? Who needs homework?
We need to be experiencing life!
We need to figure out who we are!
Figure out what we want to do with our lives!
We need to explore our minds!
We need to find out how to deal with emotions!
We need to know how to be mentally stable
And how to prepare for life!”

School says
“*******!
You’ll learn how to be depressed,
Sleep deprived,
Automatons!
You’ll learn how Shakespeare wrote great plays!
You won’t read any though,
You’ll be too busy solving math you’ll never use!
No time for that though!
You’ll need to know in life that atoms have rings
These rings have electr—
What’s that?
Oh! Time to learn how to buy a home!
Just kidding! Taxes? Ha! Won’t need ‘em!
Here, take a test on things you didn’t learn!
You failed?
That means you ****!”

We moan, groan, complaining about how we have no time
“We want sleep!
We want lives!
We want to see the world!”

“Well *******!”

So
I hear you’re moving back
I just wanna say one thing
Let’s keep it civil
If we run into each other
No “I hate you”
No “You *******”
No anything
We just pass
Because otherwise
**** gets ugly
Fast
...
...
...
So see ya around, maybe



Oh, and by the way,
Don’t **** with me or my friends
We’ve had enough ******* for a while

A soul is a gateway to our true intentions
Usually clear, bright, reflecting what we feel
But pain warps it
Blurring the window
Dimming the light
Absorbing the suffering of those around
To cleanse it
We write
We draw the darkness from inside
Using the pain as the ink
The suffering as the pen
The honesty as the paper
Until we can see light again

Who am I?
What am I doing?
I’m drifting this way and that on the river of life
Being pushed along by peers, teachers, family
But where am I going?
I find myself moving swiftly
To a waterfall
At the bottom many jagged rocks
Each of them labeled
Depression
Loneliness  
Bitterness
Anxiety
But I can’t steer away
Fore my enemies have taken my paddles
Broken the rudder
And left me helpless
My only choices
Abandon ship
Or wait and hope for someone to save me
So I sit and wait
But nobody comes
Nobody’s here to help me
And it’s too late
The boat of my conscience starts twirling
I near the edge of the water
And hope the bottom isn’t as close—
As dangerous— as it seems

1
It’s only been two hours

“Supposed to be a happy new year!”
But then why does it feel even more depressing than the last one
Happy New Years