Featured Artwork: Anna Parini

He returns home

With his buttoned shirt

And maroon tie

 

He breathes it in

And lets out a sigh

His backpack slouching

Descends to the side

 

And plummets down

With a muffled cry

 

He can’t disclose it

Can’t let his parents know

He failed his test

Can’t let it be known 

 

He’s agitated about what an end of a stick 

Might do to him

Frightened they’ll loathe him even more

 

Petrified 

 

Filled with remorse

 

He attempted his best

He did his utmost

But his parents insist 

 

For so much

 

And he takes a fall…

 

He ponders on if 

He ought to end it all

As no compassion 

From his parents

Assembled cold walls

 

And little Jun Yang 

Feels all alone in the room

 

Where the only voice

He discerns

Is his own

And the only worries are

“What did he do wrong”

And the only inquiries he has

Is “how to move on?

 

And why is it every time

He reaches out

 

He feels his clench unlatching

 

Feels his body trembling…

Maybe this is his body’s way

Of giving up 

On everything

 

But why?

Why did we let him

Just die?

 

Die

 

This young child 

Felt despondent,

Isolated,

And departed

 

In the middle of the night

 

A future

Vivid, 

Promising 

Now dissipated 

 In thin sight

 

All because 

 

A single grade 

Was made

To define 

 

His entire life

 

Why?

 

Canada,

Parents must be enlightened

With the notion

That their children 

Have more to propose 

More to present…

Than their lives

 

Because

Otherwise,

We have just have latched doors

And no way out

And these little children 

Will have no way to sprout…