“Silent,” by WITS Student Elena DeMaria
November 3, 2015
Silent
The buzz of cyan, teal, turquoise against my eyelids
so different, yet so alike
Whoosh, I’m gone
A shadow of a man needing redevelopment
The A-frame taking a spot
in my shell of a self
then falling away as a spirit
the walls close, inward
but I am not claustrophobic
I am one with the walls
the clock moves on
not a second too fast
not a second too slow
the radiation
off me, off the universe
happy, sad, jealous, mad
falling off me unless they are present
thinking, no, I’m not thinking
thought is not present
thought is past
remember, remembrance, gone
past, no, present, yes, future, no
quiet
Elena DeMaria wrote this poem while a student at View Ridge Elementary School in 2014-15 with WITS writer Kathleen Flenniken. She read it to open SAL’s Poetry Series program featuring Mary Syzbist and Robert Wrigley.