Are you anxious or excited?
Perception tricks
same headspace ticks
Stretch beyond the point of comfort
fearful of the pain it brings
Persist the test through fight or flight
response is timed
Allow for growth
gain knowledge and engage
With experience we evolve

Waiting quietly in line at the age of nine
Wet hair clinging to nervous skin
Remembering previous summers
Past attempts I failed to swim

To pass you must bring yourself
To the water trampoline and back to the dock
Then tread water for thirty seconds
By then arms feel like rocks

My friends wished me luck
Before into the water I leapt
Pushed my muscles through the cold
As I surfaced from the murky depths

I reached the looming yellow island
Turned around, feet on the ladder, and kicked
I used that small bit of extra momentum
To keep paddling  though lungs constrict

When I find myself back at the wooden dock
Then final countdown starts
Each cell in my body is aching
This is the last and hardest part

Fighting with the freezing lake
The test is nearly done
Just as I am about to give up
5..4..3..2..1!

You bought your test and passed your ticket
While I was kneeling by your spell
There might be no rest for the wicked
But I've been sleeping quite well

Did I chicken out or was it not the time?
The moment was so fine but not right
The fight within me ceased
It was a feast of joy and of song
Nothing could go wrong
Maybe next time i'll see if with her I belong.

As I sit in this classroom

Listening to keys clattering

Pencils clicking

Feet tapping

Pages flipping

Shuffling feet

Creaking seat

Faint ac, or is that the heater?

Such is unknown to me

For it is all overwhelming

Things so small

Yet so impacting.



Then, from outside

Chatter of children

Wind whispering my very name

Calling me to the freedom of the outdoors

A plane overhead

Announcing its presence

Clicking of a mouse

A pencil dropping

People adjusting in their seats

Drinking water

Back to work

The tap of a foot

The shuffle of paper

Pages turning

Legs shifting positions

Another plane overhead

And all the while,

Here I wonder,

While pages are turning;

What am I learning?



- Jay M
November 22nd, 2019

The weird thing with boredom
Is that it always only occurs
When one has quite a lot
Of actual things things to do.

Like right now,
I am writing
Maybe getting a couple of likes
When I should be studying
So I don’t get a grade
That makes me go “Yikes!”

Like right now I feel deprived
Of things to do,
I think it’s cause one gets easily bored
With what’s right in front of you.

I have so many tests to study for,
Yet I'm sitting here, wishing to die.
I have so many things to do,
But all I do is mentally cry.