S.Y. Liu

The child you reared

The straight-A student

The hard worker, the one that gives

The disorganized, happy, childish teen

The one who cares too much

I've gotten pretty good

At pretending

Some nights

I fall asleep

And wake up with 

Red puffy eyes

But I go to school

With a smile on my face

And hope no one notices

That a bit of light

there is a language, 

of clear skies and fluffy 

sheep-like clouds 

of tree-whispers 

and shooting stars. 

spoken  

in smile-lined faces 

The world stops. 

Time stops. 

People stop. 

You're there and he is not. 

How is this fair? 

It wasn't one moment

That made me fall in love

With snowboarding

I didn't stand at the top of the mountain

As the wind whipped my hair

And decided I loved to snowboard

It wasn't the moment when

You see the teacher standing at the front of the room —

Organized. Patient. Smiling like she has all the answers.

What you don’t see is the stack of bills on her kitchen counter,

Or the nights she stays awake wondering