Abigail Levy, a sophomore at The Sharon Academy, says she channeled some frustrations she felt at school into her poem, "Ephemeral Acceptance." "I was driven to write Ephemeral by the feeling I had when I looked around at school," she says, "and saw attitudes of indifference plastered on people who I knew cared an awful lot about their appearances."
Ephemeral Acceptance
By Abigail Levy
Grade Ten, The Sharon Academy
I care. I care desperately,
tearing urgently toward approval for the face I wear that day.
Deep silence.
Everyone cares;
life's a stage for posturing, peacocks all.
Intelligent life piped into Aeropostale outfits,
the mind was bound to be abandoned.
Conversation is gossip, others
remarked upon,
whispered glances stolen in lockerside hall.
“That’s not me,” we’d say, but in the dark of the night, when
friends are talking to lovers and you sit alone, you wonder, and
you care an awful lot then.
Everything pasted on in front of a mirror,
steel foundation and mascara chains reinforce my
corset of porcelain flesh and mask of blushed bone,
ephemeral acceptance.
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