1 poem

by Malita villamayor

Superior High School

Children of the night

After Robert DeMaria

We cannot always be seen,
but the faint glow of our hearts
gives us away
when we’re not hiding in our covers.

At times we carry on our phones a message:
a message received,
a message sent,
and all the while closets and dressers and all
of what surrounds us become shadow—
It closes in, but we try not to look.

At times we carry expectation.
Is it from ourselves or others?
We carry those books and laptops with a firm grip
throughout the day, due tomorrow,
but the darkness
somehow makes it heavier,
somehow makes it harder,
and we lose ourselves sometimes.
Sometimes we’re trapped in wave
after wave of the fact that
sometimes we can’t.

At times we carry fear,
wondering when the last time
was that we closed our eyes
and didn’t see the ghost of our thoughts.
We turned on the lamp beside us
as if it would chase away those hungry
spirits of nightmares we wish we didn’t have.

But even as those shadows surround us,
at times we carry hope.
Some say they don’t have faith,
but know the sun will rise the next day.
The world will still turn.
Love still exists and it survives
through those who share it,
those who hold to it,
those who allow it to grow within them.

They can be us.
They can live within us.

We are children of the night.