Never Again

• Mai Nguyen, Grade 7
• Poetry
• 2017

Never again will I lay there on a thin, wet piece of cardboard, shivering. Cold, weak, hungry.
Or put myself in harm’s way just for a few bucks.
Or beg for mercy to God and people passing buy for a living.
Never again will I express my emotions the way I used to do.
Or hear yells and hurtful comments piercing my ears from people walking by with their looks
Or break down in devastation and disgust as they bruise and batter me just for a few bucks.
Or think about the inequality between my kind and the ‘sheltered life’ for others.
Never again will I have a dirty jacket to wear and a moisty, foul cap to shelter from the rain
Or think of the past that brought me to the present.
Or rely on the world and the selfish scum in it to live.
Or be alone only to care for myself instead of the people I loved.
Or have the world’s negligence overcome my emotions.
Or have my own tears give myself a small puddle reflecting ugliness at me when I look at it.
Never again will I hear the cries of loved ones dying beside me as it haunts me as I rest.
Or hear the sirens of the needed and hurt, as it tears me apart not knowing that the needed and hurt one al these years was me...