M. Hank

I saw a photo of myself from freshman year

I didn’t love how I looked, cringed at it—a knee-jerk reaction to my ugly, green shoelaces—but not necessarily just because of my physical appearance

When you are old

Your skin will become like paper,

And your bones will be like the wooden ribs

Of a lantern

So that the world will see the light in your chest.

But I don't need to wait

I hung in the sky, frowning down at the city below me 

Scowling because Peter Pan went away. 

I had stretched, and my body had run away 

In the years since then. 

She loves everyone,

so everyone loves her.

Even when she's crumpling inside,

She'll always show the side of her

that's always willing to be positive.

When you want to throw your world away,

They said to think about who you are 

And who you want to be 

After camp 

And I thought 

What if I don’t know 

The changes I want to happen to me? 

What if change 

I hope that our legacy is our effort to love, that it is the times we held umbrellas above other peoples heads and shared whatever food we had and pointed out the stars.