Pegasus2002

C'est la Vie
Sherrie Hines
Second Place, Poetry
Tiftarea Academy

Waves beating against us,
back and forth, up and down.
Oceans of our own creation,

Do something with your life!

throwing us against rocks and drowning us in salty spray.
Our fellows struggle, just the same.
We reach out, hoping that together
We can fight it off,
Find surcease in each other's arms
Forget their demands.
Make it stop.

Choose a major!

Reaching out, and failing.
We, so insecure on our own footing,
Can barely help each other.

Be beautiful! Be thinner!

Some will scream and rail,
unable to take it anymore.
Slipping beneath the waves,
fighting, scrambling for the surface,
water flooding our lungs.

Don't do drugs!

Watching unable to help.
If I dare, I'll fall with then.
My tears mix with ocean salt,
I do nothing.

Make the grade!

Struggling, pulling myself up,
moving from tiny fulcrum
to jutting rock head, three inches wide.

Work the hardest! 

I stop to rest,
Panting, clinging to my own little rock,
like a leech.
I've made progress, an inch or two.