[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
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“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” they say, but it’s not always easy to escape our hardships or mold every sticky situation into a positive, palatable form. This week’s poet, Putney-based Emma Paris, acknowledges that a few scrapes and stubbed toes are unavoidable on our train ride through life, yes – but even if we can’t find immediate solutions to the problems that plague us, at least we can be thankful for the ways they come to fortify us.
Rogue train
By Emma Paris, 13
There is a train that carries everyone through this life.
Some people are sleeping, and some have to look out the window.
A few others mutter in tentative conversation with each other.
But most… most people are engrossed in their phones –
texting, calling, watching, listening, streaming, memorizing, obsessing.
There are old people, and there are young people.
There are people who see things in black and white,
and there are people who like the rainbow.
People wander in and out, but never leave the train.
They are in control – no one leaves the train.
This is not spoken but is the rule.
I know this rule like the back of my hand, like my shoes,
like my past… because it is my past.
There are no choices on the train, no arguments – therefore nothing changes.
So I hopped off that train.
I didn’t think others should control where I went and when.
No one has a right to my future but me.
Remember that, because there will be a day when you realize
that all those terrible things that happened to you –
all those scrapes and bruises, all those hits and knock-downs –
have only built you up.
They’ve shaped your light and your wisdom,
created your stubbornness, taught you to never give up.
And now, when you fall down, you pick yourself back up,
brush off the dust, and revel in the light of purpose.
There will be a day when you hop off that train,
and you won’t be turning back.
