Week 15: The boy -- Dubie

Unbearable is the weight
By Whitney Dubie
Essex High School, Grade 12

Oh cold, reckless hollowed feet;
Oh heavy, miserable legs —
You carry me through these trials.

A shadow of her heavy weightless oppression
Coming over us like a lighted speck
On a mountainside.

It’s something unbearable,
Yet expected.
My hands calloused and raw
Lonely, weary nights,
the spotlight of the moon
Upon our tear-drenched skin.

Shouldered battles,
Pitchfork, plow —
You are my dearest friends.

My family is hungry, our pillows
Dread the night
For fear of drowning.

It’s a curse,
They say
What have we done wrong?
He looks sadly at the world,
A mustered innocence in his frail hands
Contained and then broken
By laborious work.

Still he whispers his prayers,
And in time
He understands the silent, soft melody
Of redemption.