Breathe

• Reuben White, Grade 5, Runcorn Heights State School
• Poetry
• 2019

Excellence Award in the 'Inspired 2019' competition

The boy had never truly left it
Nor had its scars left him
Every time he scavenged his soul
Twas’ not a single moment to stretch out...and breathe.
That young boy was an old man now
And now stood high above his old battlefield
Away form all the fighting
Yet still lost, still pondering: What was the hidden meaning in the sea of tears?
It waves its currents; always in motion
So ferocious yet so still, so wild yet so calm
The moon above cast a deadly glow
On the gradually disappearing horizon
And he knew—his scars had not left him at all.
Tall, green grass bent against the wind
As the ocean and its splashing waves whispered to him:
“Breathe when you can. Let go, of your past, your mind, your heart
Scary it might seem, just breathe and let go.”
And, for the first time in many war-torn years, he did.