Echoes of a Compliment

 “I like your jacket,” she said as we walked along.

“Thank you,” I replied, first with a gentle smile, then again with a wide grin. That simple compliment brought back memories as we continued walking together. “Do you have a class at 10:30?” she asked.

“Yes,” I answered automatically, forgetting my class actually started at 11:30.

“Do you have bio?” she asked next.

“No, chemistry.”

“Oh! What’s your major?”

“Psychology. I’m taking chemistry as part of it.” We talked about her major and how she wished she could double major—not just bio, but organic chemistry, too. I was impressed.

We kept moving through the hall, passing through one door, then another. Near the third door, I said, “This is my class—but I don’t have it until 11:30.” She asked for my name, and I asked hers. I made sure to pronounce it right, but people behind us were waiting to get through, so she stepped aside, holding the door for them. When I got her name right, I felt she had more to say, so I waited.

“You are an image of God,” she said suddenly.

“Huh?” I replied, caught off guard.

“You are… a God image.” She repeated, nervously but sincerely.

“Oh! Thank you,” I said, surprised. She was still standing there, holding the door.

“You are so sweet!” I added, leaving with a mix of gratitude and confusion. Walking away, I found myself staring at a tree branch and overthinking her words. When was the last time someone said something like that to me? I asked myself. Was it hard for her to say that? Did she see something in me? Was it just her personality? Did she want to leave a mark? Or… am I just overthinking?

She had left, but her words stayed with me, echoing in my mind.

The Value We Hold

 Random Word Generator: 

• Gold 

• Private 

• Honey 

• Pause 

• Spicy

Gold has value, that's why women buy it. 

We all buy our own phone because we value the private. 

Some people value bees because they give them honey. 

We wish for a pause in life sometimes but we never valued time. 

Value is spicy or is it?

Why valuing something is in human nature? 

We value a lot of things in life but do we recognize all of them?

We live in a busy world where we value so much. 

We value everything. 

The Silent Observer

I was 13 the first time I saw you. You and him were healthy and always moving around. At that age, I didn’t think much of it. But as I grew older and learned more about life, I noticed you more. You saw me through all my emotions—crying, angry, happy, and even studying late at night. My life played out like a movie from your balcony, and you watched me grow up.

Over time, I saw changes in you. Your partner got sick, and the beautiful flowers on your balcony started to disappear. Winter was longer than summer, and soon there were no more flowers. One day, I came home from school and heard from my mom that there would be no more flowers. That’s when I realized something had changed inside you.

Months passed, and you seemed different. Smoking didn’t seem to help with the boredom or sadness you felt. You were always coming in and out, hardly sleeping. I stayed up late studying and saw you outside crying and smoking. I wondered if I could make it on my own and if I needed love from someone.

I remember a night when you had a candle on, and I had mine on while studying for a test. We both watched the sunrise. You couldn’t sit still and kept walking in and out, as if time stood still for you. For me, time was flying by because I was almost done with high school. You focused only on the flowers left behind.

I missed your beautiful balcony full of flowers. Last summer (2021), I sat on my balcony and tried to draw yours while feeling many emotions. Your balcony was so calming to look at. You only smiled twice in six years. The first time was when I showed you a drawing I made on a big canvas for my birthday. I was on FaceTime with a friend, and I put my phone against the window to show them. You saw me and my drawing, and when I raised it to you, you smiled and nodded. That made me incredibly happy.

The second time you smiled was when I was sitting by the fire under my balcony. We made eye contact, and you smiled. I always hoped we could meet and I could hear your story, but that never happened. One night, I came home from work, took a nap, and when I woke up, I saw an ambulance. I will miss you, Miss Stranger.

To You, Goodbye

You never cared about me, not now, nor in the past, so why would
You care in the future…?
You lived for us—or did you?
You said, “I love you,” but I never felt it, never saw it in you, yet you told everyone
That you did.
I can’t even address how you relate to me in my poem.
I am referring to you as You because I am embarrassed.
I could write about you for the 7 years that I have known you.

They, "the outsiders," saw us as perfect.
They always wanted someone like me.
They thought it was because of you that I am where I am now.

My dear You, I can’t change the fact that you were in my life.
My first You, I hope we meet again—but under different circumstances.
My You, goodbye.

Again

 Again, I am writing in the middle of a busy time.

Again, I could write anytime—
But my feelings only know how to reach my brain
In the noise of a crowded place.

Again, what are we?
Again, I am thinking of you.
It’s funny how, if we could go back in time,
We knew each other—
But the people between us knew us more.
Yet we never did.

Again, two years have passed.
Look at us now, talking about those in-between people.
You asked me why I never stepped into your life back then,
And how it made you sad.
Yesterday, you told me you thought about it again.

Again, maybe we should surprise the in-between people—
Let them see how we finally know each other.
Even though I knew you from a distance,
Now, I am knowing you from you, not from my research.

Alright, you don’t need to call a spy
About my obsession with people.

The Eyes of Society

 I sing your words with my voices 

But the words were never mine

My voice was mine but I got lucky to have the gift

The song is made of two things: my voice and words 

But neither of them belongs to me

Your eyes always looked to see what were they about to say

You were looking with your two eyes yet your ear could only hear

Society always looked at you with their eyes 

Yet your ear always listened to them

You never looked at them with your eye
Your eyes were weak yet your ear was stronger 

Would you ever look at society with the way they looked at you?

He Loved me

 He said he fell in love cuz I had 2a, 3a, 2c and 3c hair. 

I wish he knew my hair changed because I was in love with him. 

“We started to look alike,” people said. 

We were perfect in an imperfect world.

We loved one another without reading the condition afterwards.

Special signature to show our love. 

He loved me more than he could love me. 

Took me in his world, it was beautiful just like his ocean eyes.

I started to notice my hair became just like him. 

Can you fall in love with the same person twice without knowing they were the same person?

Well, I did.

A Perfect Imperfection

 

• God, you didn't have the eye color I wanted, but you gave me perfect eyes that I could put on any lens. 

• God, you didn’t give me the hair color I wanted, but you gave me strong hair that could dye any hair color.

• God, you didn't give me clear skin, and it is full of acne, but you gave me a strong face that could take all those makeup chemicals. 

• God, you didn’t give me small ears but gave me a big one so I can cover it with piercings.

• God, you didn’t give me white teeth, but I brush them every day and it never breaks.

My Dream Found a Title

 After watching Capernaum, I didn’t find answers to my questions, but I understood why I had them. It was as if the film clarified where my dreams came from. I remembered a day, right after graduation, when I sat outside the library with the same person I’d met four years ago. We’d come so far since then, and somehow, the lives we’d each created became a quiet competition between us in high school.

That day felt like a scene from a movie. We started out at a distance, as COVID rules kept us apart, but she still mentioned how much she liked my art. That didn’t stop her from being nice. By the end, we were sitting side-by-side on a bench, both of us in our dresses, though my heels were broken. And she dropped me at my house.  We began talking, and even though I tried to stay in the present, I couldn’t help but bring up the past and how far we have become. She asked me questions, and before I knew it, I was talking about my dreams. She listened in a way no one else had. For the first time, I actually heard myself speaking openly about a dream I’d kept hidden.

She looked at me, fully engaged, and said, “You have such different dreams. At your age” In that moment, I felt understood. I’d carried these dreams in silence, unable to explain them to anyone, even when I tried. But with her, I found myself able to put them into words without fear of judgment. It wasn’t just that she heard me—I heard myself, too, that day.

The Silent Death of the Mind

The only way to lose yourself
is to be alone with your thoughts.

In this modern world, our minds feel empty.
Nothing real to think about,
nothing worth wasting time on.

Boredom is the slowest kind of death,
killing us while we’re still alive.

Our minds search for something real,
but all we find are borrowed thoughts,
echoes of the media, not our own.

To be truly alone—
with nothing, with no one—
is the deepest kind of suffering.

Knowledge surrounds us more than ever,
yet we drown in thoughts not ours.

Welcome to the quiet end.
A death we created,
a suffering we chose.

Time made a decision for Me

I woke up again. 

I was trying to make up my mind. 

Yet, it was hard to do so.

So, Time made a decision for me without asking my permission. 

I was thinking and thinking

The answer was simple: Yes or No.

Yet it was hard to make. 

I wanted to talk with someone to help me make a decision. 

Again I just woke up and I was still in my bed. 

I looked at Time and thought I still had time to make my decision. 

I had time in terms of my actions

I would be acting faster if I took more time to think. 

I went on my phone and realised the Time wasn’t matching my clock. 

I feared myself of thinking “I had time.” 

It was an hour difference. 

It was already late to make the decision. 

My friends at university already told me 

“Sunday is the Day Time will be changing this year.”

I was shocked and asked them if I heard it right. “Yes!” they confirmed. 

But that’s not fair. 

Not fair at all. 

I did wait on late Saturday to wait for the Time to change. 

It was 11:59 pm. I was counting for the seconds.

Waiting and Waiting. 

11:59 and 37 seconds. 

Nothing. 10 seconds went by.

Nothing.

11:59 and 47 seconds. 

It was getting closer and closer. 

11:59 and 54 seconds. 

11:59 and 59 seconds. 

It was time for going backward in time. 

It was 12:00 am. 

I thought we would go back to 11:00 pm again. 

I stayed up all morning looking back at flashback videos. 

I woke up and Time made a decision for me.

I thought Dreams are tricky yet Time gave me the same feeling of confusion.

It was late to think for myself. 

It was time for Time to think for me. 

 

Wish They Knew

You are only proud of me because I made you proud. 

For the two years: Grade 11 and Grade 12

I wrote the same line hoping that day it will change. 

“I am proud of making my You proud” 

I wrote because I thought of it when I heard a question.

“What is something you are proud of?” Teacher asked.

I am not mad that you aren’t proud of me.

I am mad because you don't tell me that you are proud of me

Yet you bring me down every time we talk.

I am mad because you feel proud telling other people of my award. 

It is your ego.

You want to sound nice off my back.

I wish your friends knew, it wasn’t You, where I am now. 

Maybe that’s a lie. 

I took your negative words as motivation to prove your words wrong. 

But still, I wish they knew. 

Wish they knew. 

School didn’t want to see you. 

I was doing more than good. 

But sometimes school wanted to see you

They wanted to know who got me to this place. 

They thought having healthy thoughts comes from positive thoughts. 

I didn’t want to see you either in a place where I grew and washed my tears. 

But I did bring you to that place.

I only bought you because I wanted you to hear about me from others.

Hoping you will love me: just a little. 

You sat in front of them

Yet all they said didn’t go in your brain but you gave a smile.

Was it a smile or a smirk? 

All I did was worse for me. 

Now I boosted your ego. 

Because that place was proud of you, because you raised me well. 

I felt betrayed by everyone. 

All I wanted was warm words. 

All I wanted from you was to see me as normal and not a monster at home. 

I wish they knew. 

Wish they knew.

But my story isn’t worth telling. 

Maybe it is worth writing and never reading. 

Because you never read any text.