On Realising Life Makes Out Of Us Fools

• Zainab Yassine, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2021

We're growing up.
. . . Are you afraid?
Dip your toes into the Fountain of Youth and
watch it ripple, elegant tendrils;
a void.
Disappear under the waves and breathe away,
suffocate as the surrealist's fever dream melts;
birth reality.
Cut into ribbons, sever fate,
watch my people drift away.
. . . Yes. I am afraid.
Oh, my darling -
stand tall, be strong;
be strong, and
don't cry . . .