Elizabeth Cummin, a junior at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho, says, "I write in order to communicate with my otherwise very jumbled brain.”
Comes Crashing
By Elizabeth Cummin
Grade 11, Mount Mansfield Union High School
I am desperate in the way that rain falls
and flows and finds a stream and binds to other rain and falls;
I'm desperate in the way that horses run when wind comes
and their manes dance and their hooves fall with the rain and the wind
comes
crashing, I am desperate
like the leaves torn from their trees
that bury themselves in the earth, I am desperate
like the stars that are extinct but shine,
to us, anyway, while their light is still moving -
I am desperate
like your closed
eyes stay closed
when you feel you are alone.
I am desperate.
I am gasping
for breath
through clenched teeth,
blood oozes from my gums and lips, I am
pouring my life
into your shaking
hands
and
your fingers aren't tight enough and
the horses fall as
the wind comes crashing as
the river comes singing and my eyes
are white
as your shaking hands
and your fingers
aren't tight enough and I am desperate because
I'll slip away
if you can't hold on.