QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

POETRY BY ISABELLE WILKINSON

time slowing, running ebb and flow the weight of growing knowing there’s an end i cannot bear to stand anymore my hands are working faster, faster than my mind shadowed by blocked windows and walls, insults people moving constantly and surely i will be able to rest one day under dirt and dust lost dreams and when i’m dreaming, working i can’t stand certain noises pens scratching people sighing wasting time meant to be spent somewhere new didn’t we do this to ourselves? is it better to speak or to die is it better to work or to lie you’re going to do both anyways they ask me my fears i say i’m scared of never learning never really working because the work has no outcome no reward nothing ventured nothing gained nothing scarred nothing made still we keep going to get to somewhere better maybe circle, cycle the shape we learned when we were kids i’m older in my mind young but losing time and restless because i shouldn’t be here in fear of breaking a broken clock is right twice a day which means i get kept without getting paid they tell you the time is now always now now to not be wasted and it’s confusing with a forest in my mind but a clock on an office wall is ticking ticking without warning and warming up for a race we might win ten thousand years from now i hate being here let me go quality over quantity we forget how that can mean our thoughts too it’s cold here cold because it’s supposed to keep you awake enough to dream of your sins sins of who i’m not meant to be are they mine if it’s not me there’s no ending to this none that we know none that we’ll let go we live like we’ll die when we’re supposed to when they say we will and when someone young dies we cry and forget forget they had no chance to live because we couldn’t show them there was something better c’est la vie, it’s just life to live for something better they tell me to live for something better i have seen something better get destroyed in a morning will you live for a new day? we will continue, weary tired and broken for a purpose that’s forgotten when it doesn’t work out some things don’t change some times stay the same and we have to live with our consequences a baby you’ll kick out of the house when it’s too much too handle because you’ve spent your life working, bleeding and you thought it would give you a break don’t worry don’t let go now time is desensitized and will forget about you anyway we’re all dead anyways is it too much to live first

BY RILEY GAIKOWSKI