Voices: Change

Cheryl Minde ’20 was Minnesota’s Poetry Out Loud state champion in 2018 and received two silver keys from the Minnesota Scholastic Writing Awards in 2020. During her time at Blake, Minde was a member of the Student Diversity Leadership Committee, the Martha Bennett Gallery Committee and competed on the varsity basketball and track and field teams. She began studying at Wellesley in the fall.

Change

You often have the feeling of being watched, and you

study snakes to learn how to shed your skin. You wish

you could bleach your face to the palms of your hands

and dye your hair in a bed of marigolds. You see in pale

hues. A side effect of wishing to see in blue.

You tell me these are just dreams. Just some lucky

pennies you collect and store in a recycled coin purse.

That nothing there really adds up to a dollar and that

you can’t really buy anything with loose change.

Have you learned to become invisible then? How to

hold your breath so they can’t see you cross the bridge?

Did you know that his life was worth twenty dollars?

And that hers was summed up in eight wounds?

Can you accept that some people can only talk to you

with holes in your back? That it will be the only time

they will see you?

When you’re asked to come back safely, don’t put your

trust in change. Dreams that do not amount to anything,

will be the reason you don’t make it home one day.