Erin Lashway, a junior at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho, has performed her work at Young Writers Project’s Millennial Writers on Stage events, and she has been published in YWP’s anthologies and digital magazine, The Voice, where she was Writer of the Month in the inaugural issue.
Unpredictable
By Erin Lashway
Grade 11, Mount Mansfield Union High School
The wind urges the tears to roll faster,
Dripping off my chin,
Slipping down my neck.
The drops cling to the silky hairs of my parka
Freezing onto the blade-like strands.
I want to scream,
Fling my arms about me
And twirl until the world blurs
And my chest hurts
And the death of consciousness
Destroys the pain.
Forget the plans,
The carefully laid-out path.
Ignore the rights and the wrongs.
Because the journey laughs
At my attempts to figure it out.
I thought I could outmaneuver it,
Anticipate everything;
I thought that I could solve the puzzle.
The problem with life, Darling,
Is it’s as unpredictable as you are.
